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HISTORICALOUTLINE 7
§ 7; The inscriptions from the earliest period which may be said
to represent the oldest script in Asiatic civilization reaching back to a
period certainly as early as 4000 B. c. are in the probable order of their
antiquity '; Black stone tablet, General Theological Seminary, New
York City, v. AJSL. XXIII, 19, reverse uninscribed; stone tablet
with rude figure Ol aman seizing one of three small trees (?), wearing a
lo\v cap with two tal! palm leaves; inscribed both obv. and rev., Dée.
ép., pl. Ibis; SCHEIL,Notes d' Épigraphie, no. L. AO. 2753, stone tablet
from Suruppak, obv. and rev., published and translated by F. THUREAU­
DANGIN, RA. VI, Contrats al'ehai'ques, no I. Semi-circular stone re­
sembling Blau A, Dée., pl. I te!', no. 6. Flat stone tablet, rever se unin­
scribed, ibid., no. 5. Fragment of a list of purchases, BM. 22506 in
CTV, 3.
These inscriptions upon stone are al! business record s shewing that
the Sumerians in the first stages of their civilization used writing for
practical purposes. The writing is linear and the scribes compose the
signs, some of which are still not far removed from pictographs, by com­
binations of straight and curving lines.
§ 8. Inscriptions shortly before Ur-Nina (cirea :i500-3400) : Vases
of early Patesis of KiS from Nippur, OBI. 108-9, and 93; Mass of Arms
of Mesilim, Dée., pl. I ter; Lapislazuli tablet of Lugaltarsi, CT. IlI.
gash, Urnina, Déc., pl. 2 ter; Entemena, CT. X, pl. 1; CT. v, pl. 1; Déc. ép., XLVI
and pl. 5; one unpublished in the Louvre, v. SAK. 32; Urukagina, Déc. ép., XLIX,
Ur-Bau, Déc., pl. 27; Inscriptions upon stone mixing bowls, Eannatum, PSBA.1890,
p. 60, with plate opp. p. 112; Enannatum, RA. IV, 108; plaques. Urnina, Déc., pl. 2;
Déc. ép., XXXVlI (diorite), Urukagina, Déc. ép., L (baked clay). A fragment of a
vase inscription, a dedication for [the life of] Grukagina is BM. 12030.
1. The so called Blau Monuments now in the British Museum, Babylonian
and Assyrian Room, case D, nos. 14 and 15 are declared to be forgeries in the
official Guide 19u8, p. 156. Several of the entries, however, make good SC)]lse.for
example 20 water buckets, 20 linen garments, 2 woollen garments, 20 jewels, A.
obv., cases III, VIII, X, XII. Notice also the rey. case 1, 1 1;2 bur for the kalu
priest, where the numerical system is exactly the same as in AO. 2753. Photographs
of both A and B in the American Journal o( Archaeology, 1888, pIs. IV, V.
Copy by BARTON,in JAOS. XXII, 120; corrections XXIV, 389.
Oldest
inscriptions.
,Period
preceding
Ur-Nina.