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Finding Aid for the Edward A. Dickson Cuneiform Tablet collection, Ur III period-Neo-Babylonian period (ca. 2100-562 BCE)
1813
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Title: Edward A. Dickson Cuneiform Tablet collection
Date (inclusive): Ur III period-Neo-Babylonian period (ca. 2100-562 BCE)
Collection number: 1813
Creator:
Dickson, Edward A.
Extent:
1 oversize box.
Abstract: The majority of the eight tablets are administrative in nature, citing loans, receipts, and inventories. Most of the administrative
texts date to the Ur III period (Third Dynasty of Ur). One tablet contains a royal inscription from the Early Old Babylonian
period (ca. 2000-1800 BCE) on a clay cone. This collection was donated to UCLA by Edward A. Dickson.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library,
Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of
the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC
Regents do not hold the copyright.
Transliterations by Justin Cale Johnson. Processed by Sara Brumfield in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT),
with assistance from Kelley Wolfe Bachli, 2008.
[Identification of item], Edward A. Dickson Cuneiform Tablet collection (Collection Number 1813). Department of Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Edward Augustus Dickson donated his collection of tablets to the University of California-Los Angeles. Dickson was one of
the founding fathers of the Los Angeles campus for the California university system. He was appointed to Board of Regents
in 1912 and served until his death in 1956, at the age of 76.
The majority of texts in this collection are administrative in nature, citing loans, receipts, and inventories. All but one
of the administrative texts date to the Ur III period (Third Dynasty of Ur), known for its abundance of economic documents.
During the Ur III period (ca. 2100-2004 BCE), the state reached a level of centralization that was unprecedented. To accommodate
the large population of workers and products under this state run economy, written records of business transactions and inventories
were constantly issued.
The collection also contains a royal inscription from the Early Old Babylonian period (ca. 2000-1800 BCE) on a clay cone.
Clay cones were often used to commemorate the building of monumental architecture. An inscription praising the king and his
deities would be written around the cone on its vertical axis. Then the cone would be inserted into the wall of the structure
obscuring the inscription from human eyes.
The cone is from the reign of Lipit-Ishtar (ca.1934-1924 BCE). His seat of power was in the city of Isin. Lipit-Ishtar is
best known for his set of laws, issued even before Hammurabi's famous law code. When Lipit-Ishtar published his law code,
he also built the Enisisa (literally, "house of justice") and he had its construction recorded on over a hundred clay cones,
of which this is just one.
Tablets are described at the item level.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Dickson, Edward A. (Edward Augustus), 1879 or 80-1956--Archives.
Cumberland Clark Cuneiform Tablet Collection (Collection 1826) Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, University of California, Los Angeles.