Photograph of a Scholar at Work

1935 AD
Photographic Paper
Chicago
N11730

Oriental Institute Museum

Artifact Description

Photograph of a Scholar at Work

This photograph, created from a glass plate negative, shows a scholar copying the text of a clay tablet that once formed part of the library of King Sargon II at Khorsabad. The tablet contains a list of about 100 Assyrian kings dating back from the eighth century BC to the second half of the third millenium BC. The copying, transcription, and translation of texts are important parts of the research carried out by scholars after excavations have ended.

Multimedia

The Mystery of Archaeology
Dr. Gil Stein, Director of the Oriental Institute, talks about archaeology in this video.

The Ancient City of Khorsabad
Dr. Gil Stein, Director of the Oriental Institute, discusses the importance of the ancient capital city of Khorsabad in this video.

An Early Clay Tablet
See how this early clay tablet used pictures to communicate.

Suggested Readings

Parpola, Simo. Letters from Assyria and the West: The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1987.

Renfrew, Colin and Paul Bahn. Archaeology: Theory, Methods, and Practice. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1991.

Wenke, Robert. Patterns in Prehistory: Humankind's First Three Million Years. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

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