Name: Large Middle Babylonian Administrative Cuneiform Tablet
SKU: AH-1164BL
Price: 650.00 GBP
Availability: OutOfStock

Large Middle Babylonian Administrative Cuneiform Tablet

£ 650.00

A large Middle-Babylonian, Kassite, clay administrative cuneiform tablet. Decorated with columns of incised, linear text, the tablet appears to be a ledger account of the ammounts of barley and other foods. Unusually, some of the columns do not seem to be complete, alluding to the idea that the tablet was a draft document left with blank spots for the scribe to fill in later. Much of the script that is available is hard to distinguish but it does mention barley rations. An unusual piece from a largely undocumented period.

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SOLD

Cuneiform was one of the earliest forms of writing, developed in the ancient lands of Mesopotamia. The Middle Babylonian period in Mesopotamia is also known as the Kassite period, dated from circa 1595 - 1155 BC. After the Hittite Empire sacked the city of Babylon, the land was gradually overrun by the Kassites, a non-Babylonian ruling class.

The Kassite Dynasty was a Western Asiatic ruling elite who are thought to have originated from the Zagros Mountains, ruling Babylon from 1595 and 1155 BC. Whilst they were a non-Babylonian class, they assimilated the Babylonian culture into their own, respecting the people’s culture and heritage. The Kassite period of rule is still largely undocumented however, with sources scarce and the majority having been discovered in Nippur. What is known however is that a period of peace and security provided the perfect conditions for culture and society to flourish.