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(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.21122004
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 BCE6th 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 (605562
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.
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