This collection contains two Babylonian clay tablets with cuneiform writing donated by Major W.W. Woods from Wallace, Idaho in 1923. The collection also contains correspondence regarding the ownership history of the tablets and a display platform.
Original order retained.
Major W.W. Woods donated these tablets to the University of Idaho in 1923.
In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. These tablets were found at Jo-kha, the ruin of the city of Umna in Central Babylonia (now Iraq). Umna was an important provincial center; over 30,000 cuneiform tablets have been recovered, most are administrative and economic texts. One tablet in isolation fails to give a sense of context.
This collection is open for research. Restrictions apply: Special Collections and Archives staff are required for handling.
The materials in this collection were donated by Major and Mrs. W.W. Woods in 1923. The descriptive documents were found by Erin Stoddart in Garth Reese's office in 2015. Documents were placed in a box with the tablets.
FOR PHOTOS Photographer, "Title," date. Collection name, object ID. University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives, Moscow, ID.
FOR DOCUMENTS Author, Description or "Title" of item, date. Collection name, collection number, box, folder. University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives, Moscow, ID.