Cuneiform Administrative Tablet

This artifact, composed of horizontal lines filled with numbers and names on a clay tablet, is a typical administrative document. Although it is somewhat unusual that the tablet was written horizontally rather than vertically, the handwriting demonstrates the skill of a well-trained scribe. Each line contains the same numbers, though the context is unclear, making it impossible to determine whether the figure represents a single quantity (64) associated with an item or two distinct units of measurement. The names recorded on the tablet, though written in cuneiform, suggest a religious and cultural background characteristic of the eastern Mediterranean coast, corresponding to modern Syria. In particular, the name Zu-Aštarti in the first line appears in another document as the ruler of the ancient city of Emar in Syria. Because the father’s name is corrupted, it is difficult to determine whether the same individual is referenced here. Nonetheless, this tablet suggests that it was written not in mainland Mesopotamia but in a western urban center. It thus provides evidence that cuneiform civilization extended into the western periphery of Mesopotamia and was used there for routine administrative purposes.