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Auction: 18038 - Autographs, Historical Documents, Ephemera and Postal History
Lot: 3132

Autographs
Mesopotamia
Cuneiform Script Tablet
2600 - 2400 B.C. (c.) Sumerian cuneiform script tablet without indication of place (but with any original probability of the West Order of Mesopotamia), approximately 45mm square cushion-shaped with gold specks. Very fine condition and in presentation box. Photo


The earliest writing we know of dates back to around 3,000 B.C.E. and was probably invented by the Sumerians, living in major cities with centralized economies in what is now Southern Iraq. The earliest tablets with written inscriptions represent the work of administrators, perhaps of large temple institutions, recording the allocation of rations or the movement and storage of goods. Temple officials needed to keep records of the grain, sheep and cattle entering or leaving their stores and farms and it became impossible to rely on memory. So, an alternative method was required and the very earliest texts were pictures of the items scribes needed to record (known as pictographs).

The first civilization that developed in the Mesopotamia area was Sumerian, starting from the fourth millennium BC. The Sumerians were organized in city state and originally the city, considered property of the local God, was governed by the head of the clergy and only later political power and religious power were distinguished, although they never completely separated. The main Sumerian cities, mainly located in the southern part of Mesopotamia, were Kish, Ur, Lagash, Uruk and Larsha. The region, free of natural barriers, was however the subject of invocations and it was only in the 3rd century that a larger organization of the city was taken over. In fact, the first of the great Eastern empires was founded, which was headed by the king of Uruk Lugalzaggisi, who in his period of maximum splendor extended the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.

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Sold for
£750