Kish tablet
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| Map showing the extent of the Kish tablet Limestone tablet from Kish (Sumer) with pictographic writing, Late Uruk period – Ashmolean Museum | |
| Geographical range | Iraq |
|---|---|
| Period | Late Uruk period (c. 3500–2900 BC) |
| Dates | After 3500 BC |
The Kish tablet is a limestone tablet found at the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Kish in modern Tell al-Uhaymir, Babylon Governorate, Iraq. A plaster cast of the tablet is in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum, while the original is housed at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.[1][2] It should not be confused with the Scheil dynastic tablet, which contains part of the Sumerian King List and is also sometimes called the Kish tablet.[3]
The signs on the Kish tablet, possibly related to proto-cuneiform, are purely pictographic, and have not been deciphered or demonstrated to correspond to any currently known human language. It has been dated to the Late Uruk period (c. 3200–3000 BC[4]).[5][6]
See also
[edit | edit source]References
[edit | edit source]- ^ [1]Henry Field, "The Field Museum-Oxford University Expedition to Kish, Mesopotamia, 1923–1929", Anthropology Leaflet, no. 28, 1929.
- ^ Langdon, Stephen, "Excavations at Kish: The Herbert Weld (for the University of Oxford) and Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago) Expedition to Mesopotamia. Vol. 1", P. Geuthner, 1924.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ “MSVO 4, 74 Artifact Entry.” (2001) 2024. Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI). September 24, 2024. https://cdli.earth/P005476.
- ^ Hayes, John L., 1990 A Manual of Sumerian Grammar and Texts, Undena Publications
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
Further reading
[edit | edit source]- A. C. Moorhouse, The Triumph of the Alphabet: A History of Writing
