Edward A. Dickson cuneiform tablet collection, Ur III period-Neo-Babylonian period, ca. 2100-562 BCE.

ArchivalResource

Dickson, Edward A. (Edward Augustus), 1879 or 80-1956,. Edward A. Dickson cuneiform tablet collection, Ur III period-Neo-Babylonian period, ca. 2100-562 BCE.

Edward A. Dickson cuneiform tablet collection, Ur III period-Neo-Babylonian period, ca. 2100-562 BCE.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/551220572

The majority of texts in this collection are administrative in nature, citing loans, receipts, and inventories. All but one of the administrative texts date to the Ur III period (Third Dynasty of Ur), known for its abundance of economic documents. During the Ur III period (ca. 2100-2004 BCE), the state reached a level of centralization that was unprecedented. To accommodate the large population of workers and products under this state run economy, written records of business transactions and inventories were constantly issued. The collection also contains a royal inscription from the Early Old Babylonian period (ca. 2000-1800 BCE) on a clay cone. Clay cones were often used to commemorate the building of monumental architecture. An inscription praising the king and his deities would be written around the cone on its vertical axis. Then the cone would be inserted into the wall of the structure obscuring the inscription from human eyes. The cone is from the reign of Lipit-Ishtar (ca.1934-1924 BCE). His seat of power was in the city of Isin. Lipit-Ishtar is best known for his set of laws, issued even before Hammurabi's famous law code. When Lipit-Ishtar published his law code, he also built the Enisisa (literally, "house of justice") and he had its construction recorded on over a hundred clay cones, of which this is just one.

1 oversize box.

University of California, Los Angeles