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School Text

1800 BC - 1600 BC
Clay
Bismaya (Adab)
7.8 cm diam.
A1166

Oriental Institute Museum

Artifact Description

School Text

The cuneiform script, like our own alphabet, was used to write many different languages. This circular tablet, written in Akkadian, was used to teach cuneiform to a young scribe. The flat side of the tablet was written on by the teacher, who assigned his student the task of listing three body parts; the nose, gall bladder, and umbilical cord. The convex side of the tablet contains the student's copy of the text.

Collected by

Oriental Exploration Fund, University of Chicago
1903-1904

Multimedia

Life in Ancient Mesopotamia
What was life like in ancient Mesopotamia? Find out in this video featuring Oriental Institute Assyriologist Dr. Martha Roth.

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

Suggested Readings

Claiborne, Robert. The Birth of Writing. The Emergence of Man series. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1974.

Roaf, Michael. Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. New York: Facts on File, 1990.

Walker, C.B.F. Cuneiform: Reading the Past. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.

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