Details

LOT 0259

Western Asiatic Jemdet Nasr Pictographic Tablet

CIRCA 3000 BC

2 1/2" (37.3 grams, 64mm).

A pillow-shaped clay tablet of exceptional quality, one side with three panels of administrative pictograms, the other divided into seven panels; accompanied by a copy of a signed handwritten scholarly note by W.G. Lambert, late Professor of Assyriology, University of Birmingham, 1970-1993, stating: '5 Sumerian clay tablets, Pictographic signs, Jemdet Nasr period, c. 3000 B.C. All of administrative content.'

Provenance

Part of a specialised collection of cuneiform texts, the property of a London gentleman; 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; this small collection is exceptional for the variety of types, including some very rare and well preserved examples; accompanied by a copy of Professor Lambert’s notes and the relevant pages of the publication where it is published.

Published

Monoco, S. in Archaic Cuneiform Tablets from Private Collections (in the series CUSAS 31; 2016), no. 131, line drawings and translation p.140.

CONDITION