Tablet Collection

Founded in 1893 as part of the Haskell Oriental Museum of the University of Chicago, the Tablet Collection of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures has grown to become one of the premier collections of cuneiform tablets, casts, and other inscribed materials of ancient Mesopotamia and its surrounding areas in the United States of America. While the first objects of the collection were purchased, the holdings were augmented with donations and findings from the scholarly expeditions of the university in the years prior to 1970. Inscribed materials from the university’s excavations at renowned sites form the core of the Tablet Collection.
 

These sites include Nippur (Nuffar), Eshnunna (Tell Asmar), Nerebtum (Tell Ishchali), Tutub (Khafajah), Dur-Sharrukin (Khorsabad), and Nuzi (Yorghun Tepe), as well as Persepolis and other sites in Iran. Under the leadership of Susanne Paulus and the assistance of the Tablet Collection team, it now serves as a research and teaching collection for faculty, staff, students, and visiting researchers. Its facilities are equipped with an RTI machine, portable XRF, and modern photography equipment, which the Tablet Collection team uses in their ongoing work to catalog, publish, and digitize its vast collections in an accessible format for both researchers and the public alike.