Proto-Sumerian Terracotta Pictographic Tablet for the Distribution of Barley

Each a slightly domed ring with hooked bird-head and stud with square head. 23.4 grams total, 42-43 mm



UK private collection before 2000. Acquired on the UK art market. Property of a London gentleman.

With court scene: female figure with looped headdress seated on a four-legged chair with her raised arms from which two streams of liquid issue to the floor; to her rear, a guilloche panel with gryphon perched on top with small birds, advancing lion beneath; tall robed figure facing the female, with floor-length spilt robe, attendant with fan and objects in the field; bronze loop to one end; possibly some re-engraving; supplied with a museum-quality impression. 17.7 grams, 43 mm



Ex S. collection, London, UK, 1980s-2000s.

Discoid in plan and lentoid in section, bearing cuneiform scribal work in large characters on one side; repaired. 269 grams, 10 cm



From a specialised collection of cuneiform texts, the property of a London gentleman and housed in London before 1992. Thence by descent to family members and dispersed in 1988 in London and Geneva.

Such scribal tablets are always of this round shape. Type IV tablets, also known as 'lentils', are circular tablets containing one or a few lines of a composition written out once by the teacher and then a second time by the student, either underneath (typical of Nippur tablets), or on the reverse. This would appear to be an example of the former.