Tablet

The first piece is a seal in the shape of an elongated animal. The basic shape suggests a dog. On the reverse there is a motif of recessed circles. The object was intended to be affixed on clay, the imprint identifying goods or a person. In the 4th millennium BCE, the first cities appeared in southern Mesopotamia, in the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Writing was also invented in Mesopotamia at this time. A few centuries later, writing also developed independently in the Iranian world, as shown by this unbaked clay tablet. It bears a text in a language known as ‘proto-Elamite’, using a writing system that has yet to be deciphered. The script and numeral signs, traced using styli impressed into the damp clay before drying, were used to record accounting operations relating to the production, storage and distribution of foodstuffs.