ClassificationsAncient Near Eastern Art

Cuneiform Tablet with Receipt of Goods to Individuals

AAT Object Form/FunctionWriting Tablet (information artifacts)

AAT Object Form/FunctionReceipts (Financial Records)

AAT Object Form/FunctionCuneiform

Place CreatedUmma, Iraq, Asia

CultureSumerian

PeriodThird Dynasty of Ur, reign of Amar-Sin

Date2046-2038 BCE

MediumClay

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Dimensions1 1/8 x 15/16" (2.8 x 2.4 cm)

Object number1921.215

Label TextWhile we may think of epic stories, famous legal decrees, and religious texts written in cuneiform, there is also a very large corpus of texts that relate to the more mundane administrative aspects of life as is clearly illustrated by this small clay tablet. The text reads as follows:

For Bama: 5 quarts of beer; 5 quarts of bread; 5 ounces of onions; 3 ounces of oil; 2 ounces of alkali.
For Baza, the menial: [same amount].
For Lugal-sazu: [same amount].
For Su-Esdar: 10 quarts of beer; 10 quarts of bread; 5 ounces onions; 3 ounces of oil; 2 ounces of alkali.
For Mas: 5 quarts of beer; 5 quarts of bread; 5 ounces ; 3 ounces oil, 2 ounces alkali.
For Ubarum: 3 quarts beer; 2 quarts bread; 5 ounces ; 3 ounces oil; 2 ounces alkali.
Total: 33 quarts beer; 32 quarts bread; one-half quart onions;18 ounces oil; 12 ounces alkali.
Day: 24 Year: Huhnuri was raided (= Amar-Suen 7, 2040 BC).

This tablet also has had an interesting modern history: it was chosen to accompany astronaut and Emory alumnus Sonny Carter on the November 1989 mission of the Space Shuttle Discovery. It is believed to be the oldest human artifact ever to have traveled into space.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, May 11, 1993 - Spring 2001
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2001 - 2005
Michael C. Carlos Museum Morgens West Foundation Galleries of Ancient Near Eastern Art, November 10, 2018 - Present
Published ReferencesDaniel C. Snell, "The Ur III Tablets in the Emory University Museum," Acta Sumerologica 9 (June 1987): 203-75. Snell no12, drawing p. 239.
Jeff Kunerth, "List of Babylonian Rations Rides in Astronaut's Pack," Orlando Sentinel (November 23, 1989).
"NASA Shuttle Carries Babylonian Art," The Journal of Art 2 (December 1989).
Museum News, March/April 1990, 17-18.
Twentieth Century: Great Scientific Achievements, Supplement (Pasadena: Salem Press, 1997), 1143.
Michael C. Carlos Museum: Highlights of the Collections (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2011), 32.
Maxwell Anderson, The Quality Instinct: Seeing Art through a Museum Director's Eye (Washington DC: American Association of Museums Press, 2012).

ProvenancePurchased for Emory University Museum by William Shelton (1875-1959) from Albert T. Clay (1866-1925) [Yale Babylonian Collection], New Haven, Connecticut, 1921. At Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, ca. 1950-1955.

Status

On view

Collections