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click to zoom(left) Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylonia (630562 BCE)
Nebuchadnezzar cylinder .6th century BCE
Courtesy of the Wilberforce Eames Collection, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden

(above, right) Cylinder seal—Warad-Enlilla
[servant of] Kurigalzu
  14th century BCE

Courtesy of the Wilberforce Eames Collection, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden

(below, right) Receipt  Third Dynasty of Ur,
c.2112
2004 BCE

Umma (now Tell Jokhka, Iraq)
Courtesy of the Wilberforce Eames Collection, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden

 

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Cuneiform script
c.2112 BCE–6th century BCE

Cuneiform script is the earliest known writing system. It evolved in Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium BCE and recorded over 3000 years of Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and other cultures, and their various languages.

'Cuneiform' is a term for several different kinds of writing systems and derives from the Latin word, cuneus, meaning 'wedge'. Cuneiform tablets were written by scribes using wedge-shaped styli of reed, bone, hard wood or metal, usually on soft clay that was then either baked in an oven or left to dry in the sun. Occasionally, texts were also recorded on stone, glass or metal. The majority of surviving cuneiform tablets are routine accounting documents of various types.

Cylinder seals developed at the same time as cuneiform script. Their primary function was to demonstrate ownership and ratify legal or business transactions. They were owned by royalty and those holding high office throughout the ancient Near East. Stone of various kinds was the most common material used to make cylinder seals, but bone, ivory, glass, wood and baked clay were also used. Considered signs of prestige, cylinder seals were often passed down within families.

This Nebuchadnezzar cylinder is more than 1000 years younger than most of the other clay objects shown here. Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylonia (605–562 BCE) and chief ruler of the New Babylonian Empire, is remembered for the heroic scale of his building projects, such as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and for his conquests of Jerusalem and Tyre. He recorded both his military and architectural exploits in cuneiform narratives like this cylinder, which describes the building and repair of some of his structures.

Over 500 000 seals have been found throughout the area covered by present day Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Iran and Iraq. They contain the names of kings and others who might otherwise be unknown to modern historians and archaeologists.