Cuneiform tablet: promissory note for barley
Unknown Artist
ca. 555–539 BCE
Medium
Clay
Dimensions
3.6 x 4.3 x 1.9 cm (1 3/8 x 1 3/4 x 3/4 in.)
Classification
Clay-Tablets-Inscribed
Culture & Period
Babylonian · Neo-Babylonian
Department
Ancient Near Eastern Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, 1886
Accession Number
86.11.389a, b
Art Historical Context
Step back 2,500 years to ancient Babylon with this unassuming clay tablet, a promissory note for barley dated around 555–539 BCE. Measuring just 3.6 x 4.3 x 1.9 cm, it's a snapshot of everyday economic life in the Neo-Bylonian Empire, during the waning years of King Nabonidus's rule, just before the Persian conquest in 539 BCE. Crafted from humble clay, it was inscribed with cuneiform script—wedge-shaped marks pressed into the still-wet surface using a reed stylus—then baked for durability. Cuneiform, one of the world's oldest writing systems, revolutionized record-keeping in the Ancient Near...