Uruk Clay Tablet (Replica)

Clay Tablet with numbers and characters

3000 B.C.

The original of this colored plaster cast of an archaic clay tablet from Uruk, 3rd stage of development, is situated in the Erlenmeyer collection,

which today belongs to the State of Berlin. The tablet shows early characters and numerals representing a grain settlement.

It is an account of allocations of barley for brewing beer to several people with the sum of the entries on the back.

This sum was combined with another entry to form a total sum. Although there were already quantity signs in form of large and small semi circles and circles,

or rather fingernail and stick prints in the clay, it was always a concrete object that was counted, like barley in the case of this clay tablet.