clay tablet

Definitions

A writing medium made of clay used in Mesopotamia and nearby regions.

historical

Equivalents

Examples

““He is the stench of a mongoose... a smitten man who makes himself important.” No, this isn’t clunky dialogue from a low-budget film. It’s one of the many pieces of correspondence archaeologists have⟳ discovered etched on clay tablets in Uruk, the chief city of Sumer, the earliest known civilization in southern Mesopotamia (near present-day Samawah, Iraq).”

“In southern Iraq, archaeologists have⟳ excavated a remarkable collection of carved clay tablets—ancient records of Akkadia, the world’s oldest empire. Marked with the administrative details of government, the tablets have⟳ illuminated the complicated bureaucracy of an ancient Mesopotamian civilization.”

“Some artefacts found at the site—on a mound known as Tablet Hill—also reveal⟳, Rey says, a standard metric system, the Akkad-gur, used across the empire to measure⟳ quantities of resources such as flour, as well as evidence of the “propagandistic programme and cult of personality” around Naram-Sin. On one clay tablet, for example, he is shown wearing a horned crown, resembling, Rey adds, “a god-like figure⟳.””

CEFR level