Early tokens and tablets in Mesopotamia: new information from Tell Abada and Tell Brak (original) (raw)

Reading Colophons from Mesopotamian Clay-Tablets Dealing with Mathematics (2012)

"Colophons are brief notes sometimes found in the margins of cuneiform texts. These notes provide information about the text and its support, namely clay tablets, and thus shed light on the context in which the documents were produced. This article analyzes, in the case of Old Babylonian mathematical texts, the relationship between the composition of colophons, the type of tablets which contain them, and the content of the texts to which these colophons are attached. The first aim of this analysis is to discuss the problems raised by the classification of Mesopotamian mathematical material which has reached us. The second aim is to clarify the function of some selected mathematical texts, mainly catalogues and series texts, and to show that the goals of their authors could be more varied than is generally assumed. These goals may include invention, systematization, classification, preservation and teaching. Kolophone sind kurze Vermerke, die manchmal am Rand von Keilschrifttexten zu finden sind. In ihnen sind Angaben zum Text und dessen Verarbeitung, insbesondere der Tontafeln, zu finden und sie geben damit Aufschluss über den Zusammenhang, in dem die Dokumente erstellt worden sind. Im Beitrag werden am Beispiel altbabylonischer mathematischer Texte die Beziehungen zwischen der Zusammensetzung von Kolophonen, der Art von Tafeln, die sie enthalten und dem Inhalt der Texte, denen diese Kolophone hinzugefügt worden sind, untersucht. Dabei werden zuerst die Probleme diskutiert, die durch die Klassifizierung des uns vorliegenden mathematischen Materials aus Mesopotamien entstanden sind. Das zweite Ziel besteht darin, die Funktion einiger ausgewählter Texte – in erster Linie Kataloge und Serien – zu klären und nachzuweisen, dass die Absichten ihrer Autoren vielfältiger gewesen sein konnten als allgemein angenommen wird, indem sie Erfindung, Systematisierung, Klassifizierung, Konservierung und Lehre gedient haben."

Cuneiform numbers in the Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions

Scripta, 2018

Ancient Assyrian scribes planned to praise their king’s great achievement by inflating numbers. But the scribes never invented whole new numbers for their purpose but slightly modified original numbers by adding an inconspicuous sign, which might reveal the reason for their cautious behavior as religious piety.

A NEW WRITING SYSTEM DISCOVERED IN 3rd MILLENNIUM BCE IRAN: THE KONAR SANDAL ‘GEOMETRIC’ TABLETS

Iranica Antiqua, 2014

Four tablets probably written in the second half of the 3rd millennium BCE were recently found in Konar Sandal, an archaeological site in the Halil Rud valley in southeastern Iran. Three of them are bigraphical, with a Linear Elamite inscription and a second inscription in previously unknown signs that are qualified here as ‘Geometric’. The fourth tablet remains enigmatic. Descriptions of the tablets, a study of their signs and semantic structure, and hypotheses concerning their content are given here.

2024_Selz-Zhang Classification in Sumerian Cuneiform Journal of Chinese Writing System

Journal of Chinese Writing Systems, 2024

Writing surfaced in ancient Mesopotamia shortly after the middle of the 4th millennium BCE. Its evolution from earlier symbolic systems-accounting devices and visual representations-is generally accepted. The various stages are well documented: sealed number tablets and spherical clay balls bearing numbers and seal-impressions are understood as devices developed in order to ease accounting and controlling the movement of goods. An important role in this development was played by the 'token system', a term that refers to small clay pieces of different shapes that are mostly abstract and therefore based on arbitrary semantics, but also include a considerable number resembling or representing objects from the natural environment (

(2021c) Fingernail Marks on Neo-Babylonian Tablets. Their placement, Shape and Captions as Means to Classify and Date Tablets

Archiv für Orientforschung, 2021

Fingernail marks are easily recognizable features on clay tablets. They appear on a limited number of contract types and differ in their appearance. The way they are impressed, their number, and their position on the edges clearly underly cer- tain rules that have changed over time. The presence or absence of such marks depends on the contents of the tablets and allows to determine the function of the persons who left these impressions and whose names are recorded in the pertaining captions. Nail marks, therefore, allow by their presence, number, shape, and position for a rough classification and dating of tablets. This paper considers specimens from Babylonia dated to the eighth to fifth centuries BC.