The top part of this tablet is an inscription in the Sumerian language, dead for centuries by the time Balāṭa the junior scribe made this copy of it.
The signs are larger here and reflect an older “font”. Was he copying from an original that was over 1,000 years old to him?
The signs are larger here and reflect an older “font”. Was he copying from an original that was over 1,000 years old to him?
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In the bottom part of this tablet, Balāṭa “signs” the copy and gives a date equivalent to December 3, 603 BCE during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II.
He uses the contemporary cuneiform “font” (and Akkadian language)
An artefact within an artefact.
Two languages and script styles side by side, and a scribe doing history in a sense circa 600 BCE.
They have the added bonus over me that they'd get to hold them and also actually know how to read them haha.