#6 Clay Tablets And Technology Today?

Archaeological 'finds' have enabled us to gain valuable historical insights into past civilizations. The earliest forms of archiving information and the subsequent 'storing' of these records have both been located in Ancient Mesopotamia. The clay tablets were often described as having been stored in groups or batches that sometimes were as large as one thousand in number.

Amazingly, a 'collection of tablets' had been discovered near the ancient city of Nippur that included 'inscribed lists of geographical names, lists of gods, lists of professions, writing exercises, a number of hymns' [Casson, Libraries in the ancient world, p. 3]. This 'library' may have been a reference centre that was utilized by a school of scribes and now proves invaluable for us today seeking historical information. Just as the Babylonians and Assyrians treasured the Sumerian language and wished to preserve it within their respective civilizations, we too are benefiting from these ancient writings.

A detailed gallery of items from the Reign of Gudea of Lagash to Shalmanassar 111 held within the Library Of Congress site, it displays these items with photograph images, transcriptions and drawings of clay tablets. Included here is a variety of tablets such as accounting, school exercise books and contract seals. How is this for a date of publication (or creation) 2200-1900bc!

The Library of Congress
Ancient Iraq historical online information is also available here to reference.

Discovery Channel
This site shows the ability of modern digital technology to create virtual, 3D copies of clay tablets and other Ancient Iraq items lost from modern Iraq museums during conflict. The old made new!

#3 National Gallery of Victoria

“Through the written word we can connect with some of those who went before us”
[Cowley & Williamson 2007, p. 3]

Interestingly, when exploring the National Gallery of Victoria, I came across two Ancient Iraq items, a clay tablet and clay brick which I photographed and scanned, including their descriptions. It is amazing to view something that is so old, that tells a story from the past gone by and subsequently, becomes believable and is now today’s library materials. Following my visit, I searched the National Gallery of Victoria’s website and located these items. Luckily I had taken photographs of the items as these two items on the gallery’s site are not available to view.

Tablet - Third Dynasty of Ur - Old Babylonian Period
[Scanned Photographs : National Gallery of Victoria]
























Brick - Third Dynasty of Ur - Reign of Ur-Nammu
[Scanned Photographs : National Gallery of Victoria]

#2 Sumerian Clay Tablets

Digesting the information that I gleaned from Lionel Casson’s book about who invented the earliest forms of writing and subsequently infant libraries, I noted keywords, phrases and new terminology to help enlarge the areas that I could now begin to search. I commenced with reading monograms discovered on library catalogues followed by web browsing, linking and journal searches.

Scanned Image - Clay Tablet

[Donoughue, C 2007, The story of writing, British Museum Press, London]

Archaeological 'finds' in Ancient Mesopotamia have uncovered numerous forms of clay tablets. Wet clay, the material used by the early Sumerian civilization was abundant as the Sumerian people had settled on land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The clay tablets were formed by hand and once inscribed, were sun baked (ideal desert climate for this) or kiln baked. More importantly, from the historical point of view, the clay tablet has stood the test of time (unlike the papyrus scrolls developed by the Ancient Egyptians). The clay tablet was in use for more than two and half millennia from the beginning of the Bronze Age and in some cases to the beginning of the Christian era.

Clay tablets recorded a range of information that recorded both facts and ideas of the civilization including business transactions, employment arrangements, laws, legends, proverbs, poems and music [Cowley, D & Williamson, C 2007, The world of the book, The Miegunyah Press, Carlton, p. 3).

The link to the University Library of the VU Amsterdam University shows some excellent digital examples of early clay tablets (some 49) that have been photographed from different angles.