107 Rabshakeh Tablet

Museum Description: Nebuchadnezzar's Right Hand Man

Room: 55/Case: 7/Number: ME 114789

Scripture: Jeremiah 39:3

This tablet was discovered in 1870, but it was not until 2007 that it was read for the first time.  It is a receipt for a payment to a temple for a man named Nebo-sarsechim, the chief court official of King Nebuchadnezzar.  As this position was only held by one person at a time, it makes it possible it is the exact man mentioned in this verse in Jeremiah!

This is written in cuneiform, a form of writing that literally means 'wedge-shaped'.   It took many years for cuneiform to be deciphered, and it was solved largely due to a carving in a cliff in Behistun in multiple languages.  1-2 million cuneiform tablets are estimated to have been found already, and about another 25,000 are found every year.  Only about one tenth of the tablets in existence have been read even once, so there could be many more interesting discoveries just waiting to be found.  Other similar or related artefacts are on display in The British Museum.