Nabataean Redware Jug

A pillow-shaped clay tablet bearing remains of cuneiform text to one face. 116 grams, 76 mm



Acquired 1980s. Private collection of L.H., Staffordshire, UK. Property of a Sussex, UK, teacher.

A bifacial, lentoid-section rectangular clay tablet with rounded corners and short sides, medial horizontal line to each face, with hand-drawn pictographs above and below, a count of sheep and caprids. 42 grams, 66 mm wide



Specialised collection of cuneiform texts, the property of a London gentleman and housed in London before 1992. Thence by descent to family members. Examined by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert FBA (1926-2011), historian, archaeologist, and specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The collection is exceptional for the variety of types, including some very rare and well preserved examples. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11637-198551.

Early writing was used primarily as a means of recording economic data; this tablet likely records deliveries and distributions of grain. At the end of the 4th millennium B.C., written language developed in Mesopotamia as pictographs, later evolving into abstract forms called cuneiform. Pictographs were drawn in the clay with a pointed implement. Circular impressions alongside the pictographs represented numerical symbols. Cuneiform (meaning wedge-shaped) script was written by pressing a reed pen or stylus with a wedge-shaped tip into a clay tablet.

A pair of penannular copper-alloy bracelets with waisted bezels: one decorated with an incised central lozenge with hatched fill, flanked by punched ring-and-dot, chevron, X and other geometric motifs; one with clusters of triangles, ring-and-dot motifs and zones of hatching. 94 grams total. 59-62 mm



Early 1990s London collection. Acquired on the UK art market. From a private collection, Lancashire, UK.