FYI:

"Cuneiform Tablets:  From the Reign of Gudea of Lagash to
Shalmanassar III," a presentation from the Library of Congress's
African and Middle Eastern Division, is now available on the
Library's Global Gateway Web site:
  http://international.loc.gov/intldl/cuneihtml/.

"Cuneiform Tablets:  From the Reign of Gudea of Lagash to
Shalmanassar III" includes 38 items--mostly clay tablets, but also
several brick fragments and two clay cones. The oldest tablets
date from the reign of Gudea of Lagash (2144-2124 B.C.).  Other
tablets appear to belong to the Ur III period, early second century
B.C, including some tablets inscribed with dates ranging from 2063
to 2031 B.C. These tablets contain the earliest examples of writing
held in the Library of Congress.

Cuneiform, an ancient pictographic writing system developed by
the Sumerians, involves the use of a reed to make impressions in
clay. The tip of a reed stylus was impressed into a wet clay
surface to draw the strokes of the pictograph-thus acquiring a
"wedge-shaped" appearance. The clay [or brick] was then either
baked in a kiln or dried by the sun. The word cuneiform is derived
from Latin-"cuneus" for wedge and "forma," meaning shape.

The cuneiform tablets in this online presentation served various
purposes. Twenty-two tablets contain inscriptions pertaining primarily
to the receipt of and payment for goods and services-accounting
records, in effect.  Twelve tablets are school exercise tablets,
used by scribes learning the cuneiform writing system.

The Library of Congress acquired its collection of cuneiform materials
in 1929 from Kirkor Minassian, an art dealer. These materials were
part of his collection of Islamic bookbindings, manuscripts, textiles,
and ceramic and metal objects illustrating the history of the
development of writing and book arts in the Middle East.

"Cuneiform Tablets:  From the Reign of Gudea of Lagash to Shalmanassar
  III" joins other world history collections available on the Library
of Congress's Global Gateway Web site:
http://international.loc.gov/intldl/intldlhome.html.
The presentation may be found under the heading: "Individual
Digital Collections."

Please direct any questions regarding this collection to the Global
Gateway inquiry form at:
http://www.loc.gov/help/contact-international.html.