3rd-2nd millennium B.C. The majority of a sub-rectangular ceramic tablet with a lentoid-section body, bearing multiple lines of cuneiform text to both principal faces. 110 grams total, 68 mm (2 5/8 in.). Acquired before 1988. From a deceased estate, passed to the heirs. Ex private collection of C.M. Cuneiform script was written on clay tablets with long reeds while the clay was still wet. The fresh clay then hardened and a permanent record was created. The writing greatly changed Mesopotamian social structure and the civilization's relation to its own history, allowing laws, such as the famous Code of Hammurabi, King of Old Babylonia from 1795 to 1750 B.C., to be written. [No Reserve]