Date of Award
5-2016
Document Type
Thesis
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Degree Program
History
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Thesis Advisor
David Pretty
Committee Member
Gregory Crider
Committee Member
Peter Judge
Keywords
Sumer, Sumerian, Magoffin, Cuneiform, Ur, Archaeology
Abstract
This thesis contains a history of Sumer from the earliest known periods through the fall of the Third Dynasty of Ur, a detailed investigation into the lives and careers of Sumerian scribes, a history of modern Mesopotamian archaeology, and the results of eighteen months' research into the cuneiform tablet component of the Magoffin Collection at the Columbia Museum of Art. It finds that the latter documents are Sumerian in origin, with most published during the late twenty-first and early twentieth centuries BCE, based on assessments from cuneiform specialists at institutions across the United States. It includes the first full translation of a Magoffin tablet since their donation to the Columbia Museum, prepared by Dr. Robert Englund of UCLA.
Recommended Citation
Robertson, Benjamin, "Restoring Voice to the Mute Clay: Sumer and the Magoffin Collection Cuneiform Tablets" (2016). Graduate Theses. 26.
https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/graduatetheses/26
Included in
Archaeological Anthropology Commons, History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, Islamic World and Near East History Commons
