Sumerian Terracotta 'Bulla Envelope' with Impressed Decoration

URUK PERIOD, CIRCA 5500-3100 B.C.

2 5/8 in. (105 grams, 66 mm).

Complete and of spherical form, containing clay 'tokens'; the outer face impressed with enigmatic motifs.

Provenance

Specialised collection of cuneiform texts, the property of a London gentleman and housed in London before 1988.
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.

Accompanied by a copy of two previous illustrated and typed catalogue pages.

Literature

Cf. The Oriental Institute Museum, Woods, C. ed., Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond, University of Chicago, 2010, p.68, for this type of object and the whole article for relevant discussion.

Footnotes

The tokens sealed within the bulla are believed to have been used as part of the accounting process in Sumerian or early Uruk agriculture.

CONDITION

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LOT 0228