Clay tablet
306575
214756599
2008-05-25T03:28:15Z
Categorystuff
7163348
{{unreferenced|date=March 2008}}
[[Image:Tablet Rimush Louvre AO5476.jpg|thumb|List of the victories of Rimush, king of Akkad, upon Abalgamash, king of Marhashi, and upon Elamite cities. '''Clay tablet''', copy of a monumental inscription, ca. 2270 BC.]]
Small '''tablets''' made out of '''clay''' were used from 5500 BC [[Tărtăria tablets]] and later from [[4th millennium BC]] onwards as a writing medium in [[Sumer]]ian, other [[Mesopotamian]], [[Hittites|Hittite]], and [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]]/[[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] civilizations. The [[Tărtăria tablets]] of the [[Vinča culture|Danubian civilisation]] may be older still, having been [[carbon dating|carbon dated]] to before 4000BC, but their interpretation remains controversial. Sumerian [[Cuneiform (script)|cuneiform]] characters were engraved on the tablets using a [[stylus]]. Later the tablets were left outside inorder to dry or even grilled in a kennal.
Collections of these [[clay]] documents made up the very first [[archives]]. They were at the root of first [[library|libraries]].
In the Minoan cultures writing has not been observed for any use other than accounting. Tablets serving as labels, with the impression of the side of a wicker basket on the back, and tablets showing yearly summaries, suggest a sophisticated accounting system. In this cultural region the tablets were never fired deliberately, as the clay was recycled on an annual basis. However, some of the tablets were "fired" as a result of uncontrolled fires in the buildings where they were stored. The rest are still tablets of unfired clay, and extremely fragile; some modern scholars are investigating the possibility of firing them ''now'', as an aid to preservation.
== See also ==
{{ANE portal}}
* [[Linear A]]
* [[Linear B]]
* [[Hittite language]]
[[Category:Archaeological artefact types]]
[[Category:Writing media]]
[[Category:Cuneiform]]
[[Category:Ancient Near East literature]]
[[de:Tontafel]]
[[nl:Kleitablet]]
[[ja:粘土板]]