Cuneiform Tablet, Female work days in the city brewery, under various foremen. From Šeš-saga, Kugani received, within the bala obligation.

Inscriptions

Incised, obverse, in cuneiform [translation]: "179 female workers for one day: / Ab-ba-gi-na, / 179 female workers for one day: / Lugal-ku3-zu, / 179 female workers for one day: / Inim-ku3, / 179 female workers for one day: / Ab-ba-e-ne-ge18, / 179 female workers for one day: / Lugal-bad3," Incised, reverse, in cuneiform [translation]: "179 female workers for one day: / Ur-lu2-gu-la, / 179 female workers for one day: / Ur-dŠara2, / 179 female workers for one day: / Lugal-ni-gibil, / Total: 1,432 female workers for one day / stationed (in) the brewery (for) the ??? and the bala obligation. / From Šeš-sig5, / seal (= received): Ku3-ga-ni. / –––––––––––– / The year (when) the city of Hu-uh2-nu-ri was destroyed. (AS 7)" Stamped seal, in cuneiform [translation]: "Ku3-ga-ni, / the scribe, / the son of Ur-dŠul-pa-e3"

Label

Cuneiform is not a language but rather a style of script that can be used to write several different languages. Cuneiform literally means “wedge-shaped,” from the way the stylus made marks on clay. Cuneiform tablets developed out of a need to keep records of the storage, movement, and distribution of material goods. Once fired in a kiln or baked in the sun, the clay tablets could be held in storehouses indefinitely. The small cuneiform tag, which would have been attached to a larger container much like we might write on the exterior of a cardboard box, still holds impressions of a cord across its surface. The largest tablet has the seal of a scribe repeatedly pressed into the clay beneath the cuneiform inscriptions. Furthermore, the individuals mentioned in the tablets—from named administrators to women working in a brewery to a “yarn man”—provide valuable insight into the people of ancient Mesopotamia who are otherwise invisible to history.

From the exhibition, Stone, Sand, and Clay: Connecting Cultures in the Ancient Mediterranean, curated by Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections

Course History

ANTH 57, Origins of Inequality, Alan Covey, Winter 2013

REL 81, Dickinson Distinguished Scholar Seminar: Orientalism and the Origins of Religion, Susannah Heschel, Fall 2012

ANTH 12.2, The Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Jason Herrmann, Spring 2013

ANTH 12.2, Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Daniel Potts, Spring 2014

ANTH 39, Archaeology of the Middle East, Jesse Casana, Fall 2019

ANTH 39.01/MES 3.02, Archaeology of the Middle East, Jesse Casana, Spring 2021

Anthropology 39.01, Middle Eastern Studies 3.02, Archaeology of the Middle East, Jesse Casana, Fall 2023

Anthropology 39.01, Middle Eastern Studies 3.02, Archaeology of the Middle East, Jesse Casana, Fall 2024

Anthropology 39.01, Middle Eastern Studies 3.02, Archaeology of the Middle East, Jesse Casana, Fall 2024

History 10.02, Archival Research, Julia Rabig, Summer 2025

Anthropology 31.01, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 36.01, Gender in Cross Cultural Perspectives, Sabrina Billings, Fall 2025

Theater 15.01, Theatre & Society I, Samantha Lazar, Fall 2025

Exhibition History

From Discovery to Dartmouth: The Assyrian Reliefs at the Hood Museum of Art, 1856-2006, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 19, 2006-June 17, 2007.

Stone, Sand, and Clay: Connecting Cultures in the Ancient Mediterranean, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 7, 2025 - Ongoing

Publication History

Magnus Widell, From Discovery to Dartmouth: The Assyrian Reliefs at the Hood Museum of Art, 1856-2006, A Selection of Cuneiform Tablets from the Hood Museum of Art's Collection, Hanover, New Hampshire: Dartmouth College, 2006, no. 9.

Widell, Magnus, Ur III Economy and Bureaucracy: The Neo-Sumerian Cuneiform Tablets in the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College (I). Orient: Reports of the Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan, 55 (1), 2019, illustration pg. 46.

Provenance

Dartmouth Scientific Association; given to present collection, 1923.

This record is part of an active database that includes information from historic documentation that may not have been recently reviewed. Information may be inaccurate or incomplete. We also acknowledge some language and imagery may be offensive, violent, or discriminatory. These records reflect the institution’s history or the views of artists or scholars, past and present. Our collections research is ongoing.

We welcome questions, feedback, and suggestions for improvement. Please contact us at: Hood.Collections@dartmouth.edu

Subject