The Use of Medical Computed Tomography (CT) Imaging in the Study of Ceramic and Clay Archaeological Artifacts from the Ancient Near East

they assume a disproportionately large role in history, literature, and linguistics in the several sub-fields of cuneiform studies

They hold the styli between the thumb and all other fingers extended, while the tablet lays flat on the left hand.

Cuneiform Writing Techniques

Sumerian cuneiform

cdli:wiki

Clay Envelopes!!!!!!

Seeing through clay: 4000 year old tablets in hypermodern CT scanner

reconstruction of clay tablets

portable X-ray fluorescence analyz-ers

Regional Differences in the Chemical Composition of Cuneiform Clay Tablets

Cuneiform Tablet CT Scan

Portable X-ray fluorescence analysis

Non-destructive provenance study of cuneiform tablets

token system had little in common with spoken language

Token

The tokens, used as counters to keep track of goods, were the earliest code—a system of signs for transmitting information

The evolution of writing from tokens to pictography, syllabary and alphabet illustrates the development of information processing to deal with larger amounts of data in ever greater abstraction.

seal impressions show scenes in which worshippers approach a larger seated figure, probably a deity, holding a cup.

merchants tracked loans

cuneiform writing, clay tablets and envelopes, and cylinder seals.

record of a lawsuit

Cuneiform Tablet and Envelope: Old Assyrian Letter

The study of cuneiform texts is still an open field

Raman identification of cuneiform tablet pigments: emphasis and colour technology in ancient Mesopotamian mid-third millennium

involving the ownership of slave girls

Cuneiform tablet with a small second tablet: private letter

The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture

The cuneiform script, the writing system of ancient Mesopotamia, was witness to one of the world's oldest literate cultures. For over three millennia, it was the vehicle of communication from (at its greatest extent) Iran to the Mediterranean, Anatolia to Egypt. The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture examines the Ancient Middle East through the lens of cuneiform writing. The contributors, a mix of scholars from across the disciplines, explore, define, and to some extent look beyond the boundaries of the written word, using Mesopotamia's clay tablets and stone inscriptions not just as ‘texts’ but also as material artifacts that offer much additional information about their creators, readers, users, and owners.

quittance for a loan in silver

Letters enclosed in clay envelopes, as well as works of literature, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh have been found. Historical accounts have also come to light, as have huge libraries such as that belonging to the Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal (668-627 B.C.E.).

the scanner produced a perfectly readable image

The invention of writing in Mesopotamia marks a watershed in the quantity and nature of information available for the investigation of its ancient cultures. The sheer volume of documentation and the vast scope for research on it traditionally have led Assyriologists to ignore the physical objects on which inscriptions are found. But clay tablets and other text vehicles are artefacts in their own right, susceptible to a range of analyses and capable of yielding a wide range of information about scribal practices and the ancient environment. This paper focuses on claims and evidence for the re-use, and particularly recycling, of tablets.

Investigating technological and environmental evidence from plant remains and molluscs in cuneiform tablets

Mespotamian Seals is offered to bring attention to the admittedly limited text annotation files of the CDLI as one of several avenues of research available in a sub-field more often pursued by archaeologists and art historians than by philologists (CDLI’s initial seals work is described here; cleansing of those file entries is being undertaken by Richard Firth). The CDLI catalogue currently [12/21/2019] contains entries documenting ca. 53,582 Mesopotamian entries related to seals and sealing: 39,622 represent clay tablets, tags or other sealings, most of whose seal impressions included owner legends, and currently just 7,854 are physical seals; 6,117 CDLI entries represent composites derived from seal impressions, and therefore the negatives of original cylinder seals now lost.

Online resources for the study of Mesopotamian stamp and cylinder seals, often with incised legends naming the owner, his profession or educational standing, his patronymic and, looking up in the Mesopotamian hierarchy, his administrative affiliations, are difficult to come by, even though this unassuming administrative tool has played a very substantial role in the development of writing, and in the smooth functioning of an advanced ancient society.