Why engrave a cuneiform text on metal?

28 March 2022

The vast majority of cuneiform texts discovered on sites in the ancient Near East were written on fresh clay shaped into pads that we call "tablets". However, other materials were also used as a medium for this writing, such as wooden tablets covered with wax, which have now disappeared, objects made of stone or metal, and rare objects made of shell, bone, ivory or glass. 

A few hundred inscribed metal objects have been unearthed at sites in ancient Mesopotamia. Metal may have been chosen for its value, but also because of its durability, for specific functions such as commemorative inscriptions often commissioned by the ruler. The metals and alloys used were gold, silver, various copper-based alloys, and lead. The more precious the metal, the more powerful the message written on it. 

In a Sumerian debate between silver and copper, each one praises the qualities and shortcomings of the other. Thus, copper claims that silver is useless: "They cut you into pieces with the strength I gave them (...) you are buried in the darkest corner of a grave." Copper considers itself indispensable because it is used to make the tools that farmers, shepherds and masons use on a daily basis. Silver, on the other hand, is used for noble purposes, for banquet dishes or for foundation inscriptions, whereas the copper tools of the farmer and the woodcutter become blunt. 

Gold and silver were used to make jewellery, statuettes, and luxury tableware, sometimes with a votive inscription in cuneiform. A 35cm-high intact silver vase has a Sumerian inscription on the top of its neck indicating that it was given by King Enmetena of Lagash (c. 2420 BCE) to the god Ningirsu for his table service. This vase, deposited in the temple of the god, has an engraved decoration of four lion-headed eagles with lions and ibexes.

The statues, whether royal or divine, were generally made of wood or stone, although some were also made of metal, or plated with gold or silver. Some statues were adorned with precious metal elements. For example, a gold plate in the form of a beard was to be attached to the bottom of the face of a statue of the god Shara, as indicated by its Sumerian inscription. It was vowed by Bara-Irnun, queen of the city of Umma, to this deity for her life (c. 2370 BCE). Other statues, some of which were very large, were cast in copper or bronze. 

In the foundations of temples and palaces, Mesopotamian kings held ritual burials of objects made of various materials, some of them bearing an inscription. In the 3rd millennium, it was often an anthropomorphic nail-shaped statuette, possibly stuck through a plate or tablet, inscribed or not. The statue represented the god to whom the temple was dedicated, or the king who initiated the construction of the building. The inscription concerned the dedication of the temple to the deity. 

From the beginning of the 2nd millennium these statues were replaced by nails, cones, cylinders or prisms. The tablets were sometimes made of metal and carried curses against any future king who did not maintain the building. In the palace of Sargon II (721-705) in Khorsabad, archaeologists discovered a stone box containing five tablets, made of magnesite, lead, bronze, gold and silver. Their text concerned the construction of the new capital, its temples and palace. 

Some metal weapons may also have been inscribed with cuneiform. They were then diverted from their initial violent use to become ceremonial objects. The inscription was often short, giving the name of the dedicatee and the god to whom the object was dedicated.

The tradition of the ex-voto, often made of metal, as an offering to the god to ask or thank it for a grace in response to a wish has been perpetuated in Christianity. Many holy places have their walls covered with such offerings.