Cylinders, Prisms, Triangular dockets

Giovanni Ciotti

Ancient Mesopotamia and adjacent areas knew a number of written artefacts that are nowadays broadly referred to as clay tablets, but that sport shapes that are rather different from that of a thick and flat surface (i.e. a Tablet). These can be cylinders and prisms (see Taylor 2011, 23–26), as well as heart-like lumps, usually called ‘triangular dockets’ (see Fales 2019).

Cylinders made of bamboo are also known from Indonesia, in particular Sumatra and Java (see e.g. van der Putten and Zollo 2020).

References

Fales, F. M. (2019), ‘An Aramaic docket on clay from Kahramanmaraş’, in Archivum Anatolicum – Anadolu Arşivleri, 13/1: 43–55.
Taylor, J. (2011), ‘Tablets as artefacts, scribes as artisans’, in K. Radner and E. Robson (eds), Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 5–31.
van der Putten, J. and R. Zollo (eds) (2020), Die Macht der Schrift: Die Manuskriptkultur der Toba-Batak aus Nord-Sumatra / The Power of Writing: The Manuscript Culture of the Toba Batak from North Sumatra, manuscript cultures, 14.