School Text

1800 BC - 1600 BC
Clay
Nippur
8.1 cm x 6.0 cm x 1.5 cm
A30213

Oriental Institute Museum

Artifact Description

School Text

The cuneiform script, like our own alphabet, was used to write many different languages. This tablet, written in Sumerian, was used to teach cuneiform to a young scribe. It contains a list of signs that the student was required to copy and memorize.

Collected by

Joint Nippur Expedition
Excavated by The Oriental Institute 1951-1952

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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