In planning the exhibit for two galleries in the Elmer L. Andersen Library, we began work in the newest gallery, a space opened to the public in early April 2018. The James Ford Bell Gallery is located on the ground floor of Andersen Library and is part of a new suite of rooms that make up the Maxine Houghton Wallin Special Collections Research Center. The suite includes a reading room, state-of-the-art classroom, reception area, exhibit gallery, and offices.
The Bell Gallery portion of "The Best from Pen and Press" includes items from the James Ford Bell Library and the Rare Books Collection. Bell curator Marguerite Ragnow and Rare Books curator Tim Johnson selected items with both global appeal and chronological expanse. Over the next posts, we'll provide a description of these items, some images of the items and the exhibit, to give you a sense of what's on display. Of course, there's nothing better than seeing the real items, so we hope over the summer you'll have a chance to visit the exhibit and view what we've chosen.
"Pen and press" offers some avenues for interpretation. With that in mind, we decided that a stylus and damp clay fit within our parameters, thus allowing us to display the oldest objects in our collections. We chose three works in cuneiform: a tablet, a cone, and a bulla. Here are their descriptions, along with images and links to more information.
Cuneiform Inscriptions: UM 6. Date: Ur III, circa 21st century BCE.
Measurements (height x width x thickness): 59mm x 42mm x 20 mm.
Description: List of quantities of aromatics.
Provenience: Umma?
Translation: 12 minas (fragrant) reed, 1 2/3 minas sweet aromatics, 12 minas cedar, 12 minas juniper resin, 8 2/3 minas arganum (resin), 3 ½ minas x-aromatic, 12 minas i m-aromatic, 12 minas cypress, 7 2/3 minas x-aromatic, 5 minas Dilmun?-aromatic ½ (bán?), 2 sìla gu4-ku-ru aromatic ½ (bán?), 2 sìla pine(?) seeds(?), 8 sìla gán aromatic ½ (bán?), 5 sìla gam-gam-ma aromatic. From the storehouse of the (temple) steward, Šara-mutum received.
Note: obverse. Line 1ff: Rulings demarcate all lines, including the blank line between 14 and 15. Line 16: This individual might be the same as Šara-mu-túm, scribe, son of É-gal-e-si, attested at Umma during the reigns of Amar-Suen and Šu-Suen (see, inter alia, Fatma Yildiz and Gomi Tohru, Umma-Texte… Istanbul, vol. III, no. 1765, and Fatma Yildiz and Ozaki Tohru, Umma Texte… Istanbul, vol. VI, nos. 3655 and 3807). Andersen Library, Special Collections and Rare Books, Cuneiform Tablet Collection.
Cuneiform Inscriptions: UM 15. Date: Isin-Larsa (Early Old Babylonian) Period, circa 20th cen. BCE.
Measurements (mm): length=114, base diameter=47.
Description: Building inscription of Lipit-Eštar.
Provenience: Isin.
Translation: Lipit-Eštar, humble shepherd of Nippur, true farmer of Ur, ceaseless provider of Eridu, en-priest fit for Uruk, king of Isin, king of Sumer and Akkad, the favorite of Inanna am I. When I established justice in Sumer and Akkad, I built the House of Justice at Namgarum, the eminent place of the gods.
Note: This cone is one of at least 94 known exemplars of Lipit-Eštar's building inscription commemorating his construction of a “House of Justice,” perhaps on the occasion of promulgating his laws. It is registered by D. Frayne as exemplar no. 64 of this inscription, RIME 4.1.5.4; to Frayne's list add an exemplar in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (CTMMA I, no. 114), and another belonging to the archives of Colorado State University (see E. von Dassow, “An Ur III Document and an Old Babylonian Cone at Colorado State University,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies, 52 [2000], pp. 127-8). The provenience of those exemplars recovered during archaeological excavations is the site of Isin (Frayne, op. cit., p. 53).
Rulings and a column divider demarcate the lines and columns of the cone's text; about one quarter of the space on the cone remains blank. The translation given here mainly follows that of Frayne, with some modifications in accord with the translation given for CTMMA I, no. 114. Andersen Library, Special Collections and Rare Books, Cuneiform Tablet Collection.
Cuneiform Inscriptions: UM 19. Date Ur III, circa 21st cen BCE. Šu-Suen, year 8, month 5, day 30.
Donated by Karen Moynihan (ex coll. T. Donald Wallace), August 2001.
Description: Bulla summarizing one month's rations at Girsu River Tower.
Provenience: Umma. Date: Šu-Suen, year 8, month 5, day 30.
Seal Impressions: Sealed by Lukall and Ur-Nungal.
Translation: [x +]2 (bán), 4 sìla average-quality beer, 4 (bán), 5 sìla fine beer-mix, 4 (PI), 2 (bán), 5 sìla average quality beer-mix, 2 gur, 2 (PI), 2 (bán), 1 sìla average-quality porridge, 1 gur, 3 (PI), 3 (bán) barley-flour, [x ] barley, [x fat]tened fleece plucked [sheep], [x grass]-fed full-fleeced [sheep], [x] grass-fed fleece plucked [sheep], 1 goat, 2 (bán), 4 2/3 sìla sesame-oil, [x +]3 sìla crushed onion, [x +] 2/3 sìla crushed alkali(-plant), [x ] average-quality bran, [x ] . . ., Regular allotments, couriers in Girsu River Tower via Luduga, messenger. Seal(ed by) Lukalla and Ur-Nungal, Month RI, day 30 20-23. [Year] Šu-Suen, king of Ur, made a magnificent [boat] for Enlil and [Ninlil]. [Luduga] and Ur-ema confirmed it.
Seal 1. 1. Lukalla, 2. scribe, 3. son of Ur-e-e, squire
Seal 1. 1. Ur-Nungal, 2. scribe, 3. son of Ur-Šara, 4. archivist
Note: This seal of Lukalla, son of Ur-e-e, is catalogued by Rudolf Mayr as no. 344.2 in The Seal Impressions of Ur III Umma (Ph.D. dissertation, Leiden, 1997). On Lukalla, his use of a series of seals, and his "filiation" to Ur-e-e as well as possibly to Ur-nigara earlier, see Francesco Pomponio, "Lukalla of Umma," Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 82 (1992), pp. 169-172; on Ur-e-e's title šùš, see W. Heimpel, "Towards an Understanding of the Term sikkum," Revue d'Assyriologie 88 (1994), p. 11.
This seal of Ur-Nungal, son of Ur-Šara, is catalogued by Rudolf Mayr as no. 829.2 in The Seal Impressions of Ur III Umma (Ph.D. dissertation, Leiden, 1997); the sign ka at the end of the last line of the seal legend was omitted in [Sumerian Economic Texts, University of Minnesota,1961]. On Ur-Nungal and his seals, see also F. Pomponio, "Lukalla of Umma," Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 82 (1992), pp. 172-4 with n. 8.
Sealed and inscribed clay tags like UM 19 were attached to sacks, each sack containing one month's vouchers for rations in the way stations, or rest houses, of the Ur III state's road system. The vouchers, commonly termed "messenger texts," list foodstuffs supplied daily to various officials, couriers, and workers whose jobs involved travel and who were entitled to provisions at the way stations; sometimes other items, such as sheep for offerings or fodder for beasts of burden, were listed as well. Each month the amounts listed on the daily vouchers were totaled up, the vouchers were put in a sack to be transported from the way station to the provincial capital, and the totals were listed on a clay tag attached to the sack. The tag thus served both as a label for the sack and as a summary of one month's disbursements on expense vouchers at the way station. Such tags were sealed by one or two officials, and the contents of the sack, or of the textual record, were confirmed by one or two other functionaries. (The foregoing description is based on F. Pomponio's discussion of these kinds of records in "Lukalla of Umma," Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 82 [1992], pp. 169-179, esp. pp. 172-7; and on W. Heimpel's discussion, in "Towards an Understanding of the Term sikkum," Revue d'Assyriologie 88 [1994], pp. 5-31, esp. p. 16.)
Sealed and inscribed clay tags like UM 19 were attached to sacks, each sack containing one month's vouchers for rations in the way stations, or rest houses, of the Ur III state's road system. The vouchers, commonly termed "messenger texts," list foodstuffs supplied daily to various officials, couriers, and workers whose jobs involved travel and who were entitled to provisions at the way stations; sometimes other items, such as sheep for offerings or fodder for beasts of burden, were listed as well. Each month the amounts listed on the daily vouchers were totaled up, the vouchers were put in a sack to be transported from the way station to the provincial capital, and the totals were listed on a clay tag attached to the sack. The tag thus served both as a label for the sack and as a summary of one month's disbursements on expense vouchers at the way station. Such tags were sealed by one or two officials, and the contents of the sack, or of the textual record, were confirmed by one or two other functionaries. (The foregoing description is based on F. Pomponio's discussion of these kinds of records in "Lukalla of Umma," Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 82 [1992], pp. 169-179, esp. pp. 172-7; and on W. Heimpel's discussion, in "Towards an Understanding of the Term sikkum," Revue d'Assyriologie 88 [1994], pp. 5-31, esp. p. 16.)
UM 19 is inscribed with the totals of “regular allotments” (sá-du11), which were issued at the way station of Girsu River Tower, located upstream from Girsu in the province of Umma (see Heimpel, RA 88, p. 18), during the fifth month of Šu-Suen's eighth year. The final storage place for this and other records of Girsu River Tower would have been an administrative center in the city of Umma. The officials who sealed UM 19, Lukalla and Ur-Nungal, also sealed many similar tags together or separately (Pomponio, ZA 82, pp. 172-4), as well as numerous tablets of various types (see the listings given by R. Mayr, in The Seal Impresssions of Ur III Umma [Ph.D. dissertation, Leiden, 1997], under catalogue nos. 344.1-2 for Lukalla, and nos. 829.1-3 for Ur-Nungal; add UM 19 [=SET 185] to the listings for Lukalla, seal 344.2, and Ur-Nungal, seal 829.2). The confirming and conveying functionaries, Luduga and Ur-ema, are likewise attested in other records of the same type as this tag (Pomponio, ZA 82, pp. 176-7). The disbursements recorded on UM 19 include beer, porridge, flour, oil, and condiments, as rations; sheep, probably destined for offerings; and bran, presumably for fodder.
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