HOW TO MAKE CLAY TABLETS?
A TECHNOLOGICAL APPROACH TO SCRIBAL PRACTICES
IN NEO-ASSYRIAN MESOPOTAMIA
Mathilde JEAN1, Michela Spataro², Jonathan Taylor³ and Dan O’Flynn²
Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Scientific Research, The British Museum
mjean@britishmuseum.org
2
Scientist, Department of Scientific Research, The British Museum
3
Curator, Department of the Middle East, The British Museum
1
FOCUS & OBJECTIVES
CHAÎNE OPÉRATOIRE
CLAY SOURCING
This project analyses cuneiform tablets as
archaeological artefacts. Beyond the text they
carry, the clay from which the tablets are made
and the techniques by which they were shaped
testify to scribal practices and production systems.
How were the tablets made? Were they produced
from specific clays or possibly supplied from other
clay workshops (pottery, construction)? What
relationship can be reconstructed between clay
sourcing, clay processing, tablet shaping, and the
inscriptions’ handwriting and content? In social
terms, who was involved in which operation of the
chaîne opératoire of tablet making?
CORPUS
CLAY PROCESSING
LEVIGATION
TEMPERING
SHAPING & FINISHING
SCRIBES
POTTERS
OTHER ARTISANS
DRYING & FIRING
100 tablets
30 pottery samples
30 mudbrick samples
ANALYTICAL METHODS
Digital
microscopy
to characterise
the fabrics
Thin section
petrography
for mineralogical
identification
SEM-EDX
for firing conditions
and elemental
composition
CT-scanning
for volume renders
of density
(inclusions, voids)
RTI
for varying lighting
of surface features
(traces, imprints)
XRF
for elemental analysis
and mapping,
chemical grouping
FIRST RESULTS
1. CLAY FABRICS
2. DIVERSITY OF SHAPING TECHNIQUES
Diversity of clays and ‘recipes’
Breaks and microstructures reveal shaping techniques
SOURCING
Folded
2 cm
Calcareous fabric
Tablet, XPL, Nimrud
Imprints
2 cm
Iron-rich fabric
Tablet, XPL, Nimrud
1883,1-18,78
Rolled
PROCESSING
4 cm
2 cm
Levigated clay
Pottery, PPL, Nimrud
2 cm
Clay mixing
Tablet, XPL, Nimrud
4 cm
1883,1-18,68
2 cm
2 cm
Sand-tempered fabric
Pottery, PPL, Nineveh
Preliminary
results
of
technological analysis indicate
a
diversity
of
shaping
techniques of the tablets, from
folding
to
rolling
and
assembling several lumps of
clay.
Taking into account epigraphic
data (genre, handwriting),
further analysis will determine
if such technological varitety is
related to site or regional
traditions
(Nineveh
vs.
Nimrud, Assyria vs. Babylonia);
to
scribal
organisation
(administrative vs. literary); or
other factors.
Two coils?
Vegetal-tempered fabric
Tablet, PPL, Nimrud
FIRING
1883,1-18,297
Three coils?
2 cm
Low-fired clay
Tablet, XPL, Nineveh
2 cm
High-fired clay
Tablet, XPL, Nineveh
The first petrographic results suggest that the tablet clays are usually
levigated, although not systematically. They can be vegetal-tempered, are
often unevenly processed, likely with some examples of clay mixing. Pottery
clays are also levigated and tempered with sand and vegetal temper.
The major part of the samples is low-fired, contrary to the pottery which is
high-fired. It is still difficult to determine if firing happened in Antiquity
(deliberate or accidental) or in modern times for conservation.
Acknowledgements: The British Museum Research Fund, Joanne Dyer. All pictures and figures from the authors.
Download
this poster
Sm 1392
0
10 cm
Technological drawings and CAD: M. Jean