Ancient Near East, Sumeria, ca. 3rd to 2nd millennium BCE. A fine example of a foundation cone with roughly three-quarters of its conical body wrapped in dense cuneiform text. The body tapers to a rounded point and has a wide, disc-shaped other end. The nine columns of text are for Gudea, ruler of Lagash, dedicated to a female deity named Nindara. Clay nails like this are also referred to as dedication pegs or funerary pegs; they were inscribed, baked, and stuck into walls made of mud-brick to mark ownership either by a god or a ruler. These dedications sometimes include stories or boasts about the rulers they describe, and are some of our earliest sources of written royal history. Size: 2.8" W x 6.75" H (7.1 cm x 17.1 cm)

Provenance: private Davis collection, Houston, Texas, USA; ex-Bonhams London Antiquities Auction, 8 May, 2013, part of lot 149; ex-Joseph Klein collection, formed in New York, New York, USA between 1941 and 1980, thence by descent

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#132809

Small chips and losses but overall intact. Very nicely preserved cuneiform.