With the ISIS Bastards destroying these ancient artifacts, I am hoping to at least preserve some. Isin Dynasty Cuneiform clay tablet recording offerings of oxen made as sacrifice to a temple. With the seal depicting a seated king attributed to the reign of King Bur-Suen (BC1831-1811) Old Babylon Cylinder seal (hematite) displaying in Cuneiform and figures of priests and servant attending to the ancient God Adad. Possibly belonging to a priest. BC2000-1600.
Cuneiform is an extinct script which many believed to be one if. It the oldest script in history predating even the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Clay tablets formed their primary medium of record where using reeds, scribes pressed on the soft surface of clays forming their script. For record preservation, these were baked thus forming permanent records usually capturing mundane details such as record keeping and such. Due to their constitution, many were often broken or chipped this intact specimens are pretty scarce. Cylinder seals are used as a form of signature by the ancient mesopotamians. These are usually carved on stone materials such as hematite and rolled over clay tablets or surfaces marking the owners' signature. In this specimen, this was very likely belonging to a priest in the worship of Adad, the Babylonian God of Rain and the skies.
Auction.. They were from two reputable sources and provenance was they were acquired during the turn and early 20th century. Way before restrictions kicked in on the export of these
I have a cuneiform foundation cone I bought a few months ago, with provenence from the 1970's at least. I do not do antiquities much, but I was able to get a good deal on this and wanted one for its historical importance. For those worried, these are extremely common. It was writing placed on clay and baked, so they survived in the millions probably.
@Loong Siew, I share your feelings towards ISIS . This is a really bad moment in humanity! I also bought several cuneiform tablets that are still in my collection. I suggest you send your outstanding tablet to CDLI, the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative at UCLA. I am sure they would appreciate digital images for archival purposes. See http://cdli.ucla.edu for more info. @medoraman: I also have a cuneiform foundation cone and spent the time to translate and transcript it. Hope you find this translation useful. Took me a while to type up using a cuneiform font:
@Quant.Geek .. these are amazing specimens you got there.. and very admirable of you putting so much effort in translating and researching the inscriptions. I need to take a better picture of my tablet as some inscriptions are unintelligible in the lighting as well as oil stains... Thanks for sharing
Glad you like them and if you ever decide to let yours go, let me know . Once you have the resources, translation and transcriptions are easy, but very time consuming. If you need help deciphering the cuneiform, the following books came in handy which are free for download: Cuneiform Texts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Volume I Cuneiform Texts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Volume II Cuneiform Texts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Volume III I can't say enough that you should send your tablets to the CDLI. Two of my tablets have been archived and I am hoping to send the others. They also helped in reading the tablet as well. Really nice guys...
@Quant.Geek, fantastic pieces. Mine does not have the top to the "spike". I just got it a few months ago from the heirs of Elwood Rafn, a fairly famous dealer who was a member of my coin club. It had paperwork for being purchased in the 1970's with it. If I were more into antiquities, these are what would interest me, not some pretty thing but historically important pieces. Btw, here is a pc of mine taken at my desk, (I keep it in my office for fun).
Some of my antiques are also in my office, including one of my CSA bond certificates (as I work in the finance industry ). But I am waiting for the day the HR department calls me in to remove it due to the fact that it might offend someone The first book in the link above deals with Cones and has information on that particular cuneiform foundation cone. Gudea was the ruler of the state of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia around 2144 - 2124 BCE. He initiated a large temple rebuilding effort and dedicated it to Ningirsu, the patron God of Lagash. These foundation cones are similar to our corner stones / dedication plaques we use today when constructing buildings. Here is one of the famous statues of Gudea from the MET Museum, one of the best museums in the US: http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/329072
Thanks goes to the MET Museum who did the original translation. I just added the cuneiform text using the Composite Cuneiform font that can be downloaded from http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/downloads/CuneiformComposite-1001.zip. Cuneiform is HAAAAARRRD!!!
