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.'

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.

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