The Philadephia Tablet

Dinosaurs | Egypt | Mesopotamia |Human Ancestors

Five thousand years ago the people of Sumer began to write. They were the first, and they began not with poetry or stories or great literature, but rather with economic transactions. The tablet in this package is one of the earliest on record. It describes the transfer of 63.51 hectares (about 300 acres) of land between two parties. As the city states of Sumer grew in size, an increasingly complex social structure called for more sophisticated techniques to record and store accounts of economic transactions. This tablet illustrates the transition from a token oriented record keeping to the use of the world's first writing: cuneiform.

The Sumerians lived along the lower Tigris and Euphrates valley in what is now Iraq. They were first people to build cities and achieve what we call civilization. Sumerians domesticated goats and cattle; they developed writing; they grew wheat and barley, and used them to bake bread and brew beer. The Sumerians built large temple complexes and had kings whom they buried in large tombs. We don't know whether the wheel was invented by the Sumerians or imported, but in the years between 4000 B.C.E. and 3000 B.C.E. it came into general use for military, commercial and agricultural applications.

This cast is a replica of a stone tablet (known as the Philadelphia Tablet) owned by the University of Pennsylvania Museum. It was cast from molds made off the original tablet. This tablet is dated to the Uruk iii period (3100 2900 B.C.E.). Visitors to the museum may see the original and many other artifacts of the Ancient Near East.

The very first writing was tied to very specific items. There was a symbol that meant 1 sheep, another that meant 10 sheep, another for 1 unit of wine and another that meant 1 days work, etc. Dozens of items were counted this way and transactions recorded by pressing shapes into wet clay. To count 3 sheep and 2 units of wine, you had to use the symbol for 1 sheep, three times and the symbol for 1 wine twice. Quantities and things were tightly linked and only things that had economic importance to the leaders and accountants were symbolized. As society became more and more complex, the system became more unwieldy. More things needed to be counted and this way of doing things stopped working.

Around 3000 B.C.E., scribes began to separate amounts (the number) from the item counted. Instead of using a single symbol for 1 sheep, they began to use two: one symbol for the amount and another for the item. This was revolutionary. Numbers were free to develop on their own and other written symbols could now represent abstract items such as names or spoken words, as well as, everyday objects like sheep or þour. With this breakthrough, written language could do more than just count objects. It could tell stories. The Philadelphia Tablet illustrates this transition period from writing as just a counting mechanism to writing as a tool for more elaborate communication.

Orient the stone so that it matches picture on the front of the package. You are looking at the obverse or front of the tablet. As you study the tablet you'll notice that it is divided into columns. There are three of them and those are further subdivided in panels. Solid lines mark both the columns and the panels. You begin reading at the top left (column one), move down the three panels on that side. Rotate the tablet around to bottom edge and on to the reverse side. The first column ends after one panel on the reverse.

The text picks up again on the front at the top of column 2. Read down the column, through the lower edge, rotate the tablet around to the reverse side, read down, and finally rotate the tablet one more time to the to the top edge. Column 2 ends here. Column 3 continues in the same fashion.

The translation
Archaeologists have not translated all symbols on the tablet. Some are most likely names, or gods, or temple households and represent spoken sounds.

Column 1, panel 1, describes the acquisition of 180 iku (63.51 hectares) of land by a person or temple household of a deity described in panel 1. Bur and iku are Sumerian terms for areas of land. The first two signs in the panel indicate the quantity and the merchandise (1 bur'u or 180 iku) followed by who bought it. The remaining text in column 1 is thought to be additional description of the new owner.

Columns 2 and 3 describe how the 180 iku is divided into four fields. The round depressions in the tablet count the bur (or field size). The four occurrences of field size are followed by untranslated text that may indicate the names of the sellers.

Column 2

Panel 1: 3 bur (or 54 iku) from ?

Panel 2: 2 bur (or 36 iku) from ?

panel 3: 5 bur (90 iku) subtotal (on bottom edge)

Column 3

Panel 3: 2 bur from ?

Panel 6: 3 bur from ?