Image Resource Bank

Image Gallery |  11 of 15

Often, tablet such as letters and certain legal documents were encased in “envelopes” of clay, protecting the tablet from damage and tampering. This is a tablet written in Akkadian that records the outcome of a legal case regarding a dispute between two men who claimed to own the same piece of land. The judges ruled in favor of the man who could provide documentation supporting his claim. Court officials also rolled their cylinder seals across the tablet and envelope, ensuring that the information was indeed correct.

Not everyone in Mesopotamia was literate. Learning to write took a good deal of education and throughout the course of Mesopotamian history it became more of an elite identity. In later periods, scribes even trace their scribal heritage back to ancient ancestors, and ancient scholars are considered to be advisors to the king. There were many opportunities for different scribes to work. They could work with economic texts, legal documents like the one here, letter, and literary texts among others. They also could work in various spheres of society whether in the temple, palace, or the economic spheres.

The Enheduana Disk

Name: Clay Tablet and Envelope

Material: Baked Clay

Size:
Tablet:
Length: 17.8 cm (7 in),
Width: 9.3 cm (3.7 in)
Envelope:
Length: 18.3 cm (7.2 in),
Width: 11.5 cm (4.5 in)

Date: 2nd half of the 15th century BCE

Place of Origin: Nuzi, Iraq

Location: Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago, Illinois

Source and Registration#: Oriental Institute Museum A11878 Link to resource (accessed May 7. 2010).

Jennie Myers

Research Associate, University of Chicago