Tablet Ex642

FROM ANCIENT BUREAU TO 3D MODEL

This is tablet Ex642 from the Princeton Cuneiform Collection (catalogue page here!). It was brought to Princeton in one of the collections donated by alumni and friends of the university. According to the Princeton University Library most of the Ur III tablets were “excavated over a century ago”.* However, Puzrish-Dagan and other ancient archives were only excavated after they had been looted by locals who sold thousands of tablets to dealers in Baghdad; from there the tablets were dispersed across Europe and took up residence in small American collections like those that eventually came to Princeton. Additionally, Iraqi scholars maintain that scientific study of Puzrish-Dagan only began in 2007 and that all previous activity at the site was “uncontrolled”.**

I found this tablet in a 1922 publication by Edward Chiera, Selected Temple Accounts from Telloh, Yokha and Drehem: Cuneiform Tablets in the Library of Princeton University. The book provides a translation of five selected tablets from three ancient Ur III archives (Girsu, Umma, and Puzrish-Dagan), including Ex642.

The 3D model above and the Selene System photographs (seen in the title page and following pages) were created by the Digital Imaging Lab at Firestone Library.