Western Asiatic Alabaster Jar

A pillow-shaped administrative clay tablet bearing cuneiform text to both principal faces, relating to a barley debt; Aramaic graffiti to one edge. 114 grams, 67 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.

The tablet records a promissory note of a typical kind to pay for barley. It concludes with the names of witnesses, town and date. The Aramaic script transcribes the cuneiform name of the debtor into Aramaic script, making it easier for scribes to identify who each tablet refers to. It dates to the Achaemenid period, to the reign of Artaxerxes I (465-424 B.C.). Such late administrative tablets are typically carelessly written, as is apparent on our example as some script has been rendered slanting sharply downwards.

An agate stamp seal with slightly convex base bearing intaglio scene of a worshipping king standing left, a star above; pierced towards the apex for suspension. 11.68 grams, 22.09 mm



Acquired 1969-1999. London collection of the late Mr S.M., thence by descent.

A ceramic tablet fragment bearing cuneiform text to one face, an inventory of fields with their surface measurements, dating to the Third Dynasty of Ur. 22 grams, 45 mm



Acquired in the 1980s. From the collection of a West London, UK, gentleman.