Not "coin"eiform, cuneiform

Hey my fellow ancientaholics! I know this isn't a coin (though about the size of one), but I'm so jacked about acquiring it I just had to share. When I saw it I couldn't resist putting in a bid at Agoras auction on Tuesday and won a small cuneiform tablet!
Cuneiform being one of the world's first writing systems and it being Babylonian I didn't know when I'd have another chance at getting one.
I wish I knew what it said?
I've read Babylonian is one of the more difficult forms to translate. I emailed the folks at Agora to see if there is any further info on the item (I would also like to know more about its provenance, Prof Reese collection?). No response yet.
Without further ado, check it out...



Cuneiform Tablet. Old Babylonian, 20th-26th Century B.C. Ex Prof Reece collection. Clay tablet with one line of cuneiform on one side, other side and edges flaked off. 33x26 mm. ex Prof Reece collection, ca 1960's.

Pretty exciting!
Please post any cool ancient writing, symbols, art or whatever you find might apply...and any idea what this might say???

 

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Any remnants of the seal? Those don't usually show through well in photos.

 

Right now all I have is the photo from the seller. I'll check with Agora when they respond.

 

Dude, sweet pickup! I love cuneiform!

My bro has one:



He was very generous a couple of Christmases ago and got me one of my own



Erin

 

Nice Cuniform...

My recent abscond from Agora:



Lot 399. Cylinder Seal of Hero Fighting Animals. Akkadian, 2350-2200 B.C. Ex J Tabot collection
Cylinder Seal of Hero Fighting Animals. Akkadian, 2350-2200 B.C. Ex J Tabot collection.. Buff stone cylinder seal with scene of hero wresting antelope and winged lion. 25 mm. Good subject, design worn but still makes an impression. ex J Tabot collection.

 

More than pretty exciting. I can see why you bought it. Despite it's illegibility it's worth it. Wait I don't know the purchase price..?

 

@Johndakerftw, awesome! I cannot wait to have mine in hand! Both yours and your brothers are freaking saaaweat! (I see the Simpson's in the background and I LIKE IT!)
@Alegandron, SCORE! I like fighting. I like animals. And I like ancients. That right there is a triple bonus My man!
@Macromius, so we are certain that it's completely illegible? I don't care if it says how many onions they could squeeze into a temple, I'm itching to know what this thing might say.
Oh, and it cost more than an arm and less than a leg

 

It appears only one word is still extant. You might be able to translate that word. I don't see any others. If the seal is visible you could get more secure dating.

A good online resource, here: https://cdli.ucla.edu/

 

I took one semester of akkadian at Berkeley - it was pretty tough and I ended up specializing in hieroglyphics - easier, well sort of. We had to translate the Rosetta Stone as a final exam one semester.

 

Cuneiform as in a foot bone? Like these are literally made of bones from human feet?

 

Usually they are made of clay. But hey, if you'd like, I know a guy. Anything can be made...for a price

 

Frank Kovacks' wife can read them. She translated the Epic of Gilgamesh from original tablets. Havent spoken to Frank for many years though. You might try to look him up.

 

that's purdy neat!.. i tried to buy one once, but there was much ado with it..so much the so that ebay wouldn't let the seller sell it and he(they,them she etc.) listed it on a French type ebay thingy.. i kept chasing after it, but decided that it would come to no good, either because it was taken illegally or wasn't legit.. i still think of it tho.

 

Very neat!

 

I used to buy coins from Frank when I was 13 and into my first collection. He had an office on Post Street in SF that I visited with my parents and picked up an Antony legionary denarius. They recently named a Numismatic library at Stanford after him.

http://library.stanford.edu/blogs/stanford-libraries-blog/2016/07/transformative-numismatic-donation

 

An interesting artifact. I'm teaching Gilgamesh right now. Here's a slide I show of a tablet containing new lines of that poem, acquired by a museum for the whopping sum of ... $800.

 

That is shocking harhar! The scoundrel had no idea that he had one of the 1st true epics ever written by man (with additional content, amazing)! I'm glad he got next to nothing for it...though wish he had gotten nothing. Thanks for sharing
Any chance you know anyone who can translate my tablet teach?

 

Very cool piece! Here's one I acquired a few years ago. 112mm x 100mm, 583 g

This one is a student's exercise tablet that was part of his school work to teach him to read and write Sumerian around the year 1800BC, long after Sumerian had died out as a spoken language.

In particular, this exercise was to teach all the Sumerian vocabulary dealing with food items. When complete, the list probably had over 500 entries. As part of their training, students had to memorize long lexical lists containing everything from plants and animals to metal objects, textiles, types of professions, body parts etc.

These lists of vocabulary words were fairly standardized throughout Southern Babylonia at this time, so that you find many tablets containing the same entries, not always in the same order, but usually pretty close. Of course, some students were better than others, so some tablets contain more mistakes and some are written in messier script. This tablet seems to have been written by a fairly good student, although there are a number of deviants from the standard version of the food items list.



The obverse is the side with 3 columns and wide rows. The obverse represents a new part of the word list that the student is learning. In this case, each column repeats the same section of the list, so the student had a chance to practice it over and over. Unfortunately, not much is preserved on the obverse - just several different types of barley including “white barley” and “black barley.”

The reverse contains a much larger section of the list that the student had already memorized, and is just practicing here. This side is divided into 4 columns, the first column is almost entirely broken. The second column contains a list of different types of beer including “beer mixed with water,” “market beer,” “beer that foams like soap”, and “sweet beer.” Column three contains types of soup, most of which are not known from other versions of this list and will take more work to decipher, and types of fragrant plants, most of which are plants that cannot be identified.

 

Sorry. I have some schoolboy Latin. And my Old English is pretty good. But I'm no help with the Sumerian/Akkadian. Maybe a large research university would have an appropriate department.

 

I’ll see your cuneiform tablet, and I’ll raise you this cuneiform WALL!



One of the MANY priceless treasures I saw today at the British Museum.