Lot 4869
Rare Unopened Cuneiform Letter. Old Babylonian, c. 1750 BC. Size: 1-3/4 x 1-5/8." In deep brown clay, this tablet is similar to the previous lot but larger and thicker due to the "envelope" encasing another smaller tablet within. Text appears on both sides, plus two edges. The exterior text mirrors most, if not all of the inscription on the interior tablet. This is also an economic document detailing the receipt of five shekels of silver as interest, reflecting an agreement that was also notarized before witnesses. Envelope is intact and perfect. Again rare and desirable for being an actual transaction in shekels of silver, rather than just an ordinary receipt. But also, this artifact has the immediacy of placing one so very near to the ancient event by the fact that the scribe, who fashioned and then wrote on this tablet, left his finger and palm prints firmly and clearly all over it!
Estimated Value $500 - 600.
Ex Shirley Barr Sage Collection, published in her Biblical Numismatics: Thirty Pieces of Silver, discussed on pp. 12, 13. Translated by Professor Robert Englund of UCLA.
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| Realized $661 |
