Details

LOT 0243

Old Babylonian Terracotta Cuneiform Tablet, Dated to the Seventh Year of King Amar-Suen

21ST CENTURY B.C.

1 3/4 in. (40 grams, 45 mm).

Pillow-shaped tablet containing a record of administrative records for arrears owed by Lugal-Ishtaran from the Bala-Offerings, at the end of day 15, it is dated to the year seven of King Amar-Suen, one side with a seal impression showing a man fighting with a rampant lion, possibly depicting Gilgamesh, cuneiform text behind the beast; the other side with cuneiform text overlapped by a seal impression in two registers showing advancing offerants with their arms raised; supplied in an old box with typed collection label to the cover.

Provenance

Found at Jokha, the ruin of the ancient city of Umma in Central Babylonia.
Ex Edgar J. Banks (1866-1945).
Purchased by Dr John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943); by family descent to consignor.
Edgar Banks was a diplomat and archaeologist upon whom the fictional character of Indiana Jones was based.
Dr J.H. Kellogg was the founder of the Battle Creek Sanitarium and inventor of the Corn Flake.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.