cuneiform tablet, unknown maker from Sumeria

Artwork Overview

cuneiform tablet
Akkadian Empire (circa 2334–2154 BCE)
cuneiform tablet , Akkadian Empire (circa 2334–2154 BCE)
Where object was made: Sumer (present-day Iraq)
Material/technique: pottery
Dimensions:
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 3.8 x 5.7 x 2 cm
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 1 1/2 x 2 1/4 x 0 13/16 in
Credit line: William Bridges Thayer Memorial
Accession number: 1928.3877
On display: Stewart Gallery

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This early form of “text messaging” goes back 4,000 years. Cuneiform is the earliest known system of writing, recorded as combinations of wedge-shaped marks on wet clay tablets using a sharpened reed of stiff grass. Even emojis have an ancient counterpart in the form of logograms and pictographs, which developed alongside systems of writing. Cuneiform tablets first captured records related to land and agriculture, but evolved to document maps, literature, religious teachings, and more.
Intersections
This early form of “text messaging” goes back 4,000 years. Cuneiform is the earliest known system of writing, recorded as combinations of wedge-shaped marks on wet clay tablets using a sharpened reed of stiff grass. Even emojis have an ancient counterpart in the form of logograms and pictographs, which developed alongside systems of writing. Cuneiform tablets first captured records related to land and agriculture, but evolved to document maps, literature, religious teachings, and more.

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