Clay manuscripts in 3D

26 September 2021

You may have been surprised, when reading some of the texts of the Mesopotamian Bulletin blog, to discover the use of the word "manuscript" to denote clay tablets covered with cuneiform characters. The definitions of the words "manuscript" and "epigraphy" were established by historians of the classical world to distinguish between ancient texts written on soft, perishable media, often lost except when they were copied several times, and those written on hard, durable media that survived the vagaries of time.

According to this terminology, the Greek word "epigraphy" refers to the study of ancient inscriptions, often short, engraved, incised or painted on durable media: stone, metal, wood, clay, etc. The person who studies inscriptions is called an "epigraphist". In contrast, the term "manuscript" is of Latin origin and means "handwritten". It is understood to mean the original version of a work written or copied by hand on paper, papyrus, parchment, vellum, etc., the leaves of which may be collected in the form of a book. The person who studies manuscripts is called a "palaeographer".

Following these definitions, all clay tablets written in cuneiform characters should be referred to as "inscriptions" and studied by epigraphists. Yet Assyriologists often use the term "manuscript" to refer to these tablets.

The cuneiform signs were printed in three-dimensional negative in fresh clay with a stylus. Clay was abundant in Mesopotamia, and its use for writing has many advantages. The cuneiform clay tablets were dried in the sun and have survived to the present day, unlike other writing media made of organic materials. The fires that destroyed many sites baked some of the tablets, which helped to preserve them.

Tablet clay was also cheap and easily recyclable. The texts produced by apprentice scribes, for example, were not intended to be preserved. Once an exercise had been completed and corrected, the student would put the tablet back into a large jar with water to form a new one. Many school tablets were also reused as building material. Apart from recycling, when writing on fresh clay, it was always possible to erase signs or a line. Once the clay was dry, it could be wet again to erase signs and add new ones.

When not recycled, the clay tablets were small enough to be easily moved and transported. This was particularly true of letters, which were usually no larger than the palm of the hand. Before being sent, letters were enclosed in a clay envelope. This protected not only the contents of the letter, but also the integrity of the tablet during transport. These letters, as well as other legal and accounting documents, have been found organised in archives in the ruins of buildings.

Other types of texts – literary, divinatory, or mathematical – could be quite long and must have been written on several tablets. The Epic of Gilgameš, constructed from several narratives, had twelve tablets in its most complete version (7th century BCE), each bearing its own number in the series, like the pages in a book. All these literary and scholarly works were kept in the libraries of palaces, temples, and some private houses.

These cuneiform tablets thus had many of the characteristics of manuscripts: they were handwritten and unique, they were transportable, they could be enclosed in an envelope, they could be annotated or even drawn on, they could be erased or recycled, they could be grouped together in book form, and they could be stored in archives and libraries. Assyriologists who work on cuneiform tablets are therefore paleographers. Some study the hands of the authors of these clay manuscripts.