New Cuneiform

A recent acquisition to my personal collection. This is most likely a transaction record....aka a receipt. either Akkadian or Babylonian.

The second is a pillow form inscribed both sides in diminutive characters.  The edge with an old inked Arabic inscription on a narrow paper band.  Surface somewhat worn.  The back with large chip comprising about half its surface.


The cuneiform writing system was in use for more than 35 centuries, through several stages of evolution, from the 34th century BC down to the 1st century AD. It was completely replaced by alphabetic writing (in the general sense) in the course of the Roman era and there are no Cuneiform systems in current use. For this reason, it had to be deciphered from scratch in 19th century Assyriology. Successful completion of decipherment is dated to 1857.