The corpus
All tablets.
Every tablet in the corpus — sortable by date, title or period; filterable by theme and period. Use the controls below or change the URL parameters directly.
1–41 of 41
Stele of the Vultures
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.
LawWriting & Literature
Disk of Enheduanna
The literary tradition is no longer anonymous from this point. Authorship — the idea that a specific human voice composes a specific work — enters the historical record with her.
MythologyWriting & Literature
Epic of Gilgamesh Flood Tablet in Akkadian Cuneiform - Nate Loper (43494374962)
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, regarded as the earliest surviving great work of literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. It records a
Mythology
Code of Ur-Nammu
The oldest surviving law code in human history. The principle that the state — not the wronged family — defines and enforces justice begins here.
LawCode of Lipit-Ishtar
One of the earliest law codes after the Code of Ur-Nammu (c. 2100 BCE), and the closest direct predecessor of Hammurabi's better-known code. Lipit-Ishtar's code is written in Sumerian — by this period a learned tongue, no longer spoken in daily life — and uses monetary compensation for personal injury, in continuity with Ur-Nammu. The legal tradition is Sumerian; Hammurabi's later innovation is largely to translate it into Akkadian and add the lex talionis.
Law
Sumerian King List (Weld-Blundell Prism)
The single most influential Mesopotamian king list — the model for every later attempt to chronicle the deep history of the region. It transmits the political theology of divinely granted kingship, an idea that would echo through Babylon, Assyria, and into the Hebrew Bible. The Weld-Blundell prism (WB 444) at the Ashmolean is the most complete surviving copy.
MythologyWriting & Literature
British Museum Flood Tablet 1
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: "The Flood Tablet. This is perhaps the most famous of all cuneiform tablets. It is the eleventh tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic, and describes how the gods sent a flood to destroy the world. Like Noah, U
Mythology
Cuneiform legal tablet in case from Aleppo
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Clay tablet from Alalakh still in clay envelope. Dated 1720 BC.
Law
Cuneiform tablet- Emesal prayer MET ME86 11 285
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Seleucid or Parthian; Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed
Mythology
Cuneiform tablet- fragment of a ritual text MET ME86 11 376
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed
Mythology
Cuneiform tablet- fragment of a text containing incantations MET vsz86.11.448
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed
Mythology
Cuneiform tablet- fragment of an Emesal prayer MET vsz86.11.476a
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Seleucid or Parthian; Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed
Mythology
Cuneiform tablet- hymn to Marduk MET DP360674
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Babylonian (?); Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed;
Mythology
Cuneiform tablet- legal decision by appointed judges MET ME66 245 19a
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Old Assyrian Trading Colony; Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed
Law
Cuneiform tablet, legal document concerning a trial, Sumer, modern Iraq, c. 2037-2029 BC - Spurlock Museum, UIUC - DSC05943
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Exhibit in the Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA. This work is old enough so that it is in the public domain. CDLI: https://cdli.earth/artif
Law
Cuneiform tablet- petition, prayer for a king MET ME86 11 399
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed
Mythology
Hattusa Bronze Tablet Cuneiform
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Bronze tablet from Çorum-Boğazköy dating from 1235 BC. Photographed at Museum of Anatolian Civilisations. This cuneiform document excavated at Hattusa in 1986 is the only bronze tablet found in Anatol
Law
Hittite Cuneiform Tablet- Legal Deposition(?)
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Tablet on display at the Oriental Institute , with the caption: Hittite Cuneiform Tablet: Legal Deposition(?) Baked clay Hattusha Late Bronze Age (13th century BC) A6004 A6004 - VBot 30 - CTH 832
Law
Tablet BM131452
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Clay cuneiform tablet of a legal case before Saustatar, King of Mitanni, involving Niqmepa, King of Alalakh. Dated 1550BC-1400BC.
Law
The Newly Discovered Tablet V of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Meeting Humbaba, with Enkidu, at the Cedar Forest. The Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraqi Kurdistan
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: The tablet dates back to the Old-Babylonian Period, 2003-1595 BCE.
Mythology
Code of Hammurabi (stele)
Not the first law code, but the most complete and the most famous. Inscribed on a black diorite stele over two meters tall, displayed in a public place — law made visible, law made monumental.
Law
Amarna Letter EA 153 — Abi-milku of Tyre
Part of the earliest known body of international diplomatic correspondence. Akkadian, written in cuneiform on clay, was the lingua franca of Late Bronze Age statecraft — used between Egypt, the Hittites, Mitanni, Babylon, Assyria, and the Levantine vassals.
Daily LifeLaw
Babylonian Liver Omens 193, plts. XI & XLII-XLIII
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Middle Assyrian (ca. 1400-1000 BC)) — Babylonian Liver Omens 193, plts. XI & XLII-XLIII. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Mythology
Ashurnasirpal II 060
One of the surviving royal inscriptions of Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–859 BCE), preserved in the RIAo corpus as a witness to the formulaic and historical record of early Neo-Assyrian kingship.
LawMythology
Ashurnasirpal II 061
One of the surviving royal inscriptions of Ashurnasirpal II, whose annals collectively document the territorial expansion and brutal suppression campaigns that defined early Neo-Assyrian imperial statecraft.
LawMythology
liver omens, pl. 33
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — liver omens, pl. 33. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Mythology
liver omens, Pl. X
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — liver omens, Pl. X. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Mythology
liver omens, pl. XII
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — liver omens, pl. XII. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Mythology
liver omens, pl. XVIII
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — liver omens, pl. XVIII. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Mythology
liver omens, pl. XX
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — liver omens, pl. XX. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Mythology
liver omens, pl. XXIX
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — liver omens, pl. XXIX. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Mythology
liver omens, tb. XVII (K.12792)
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — liver omens, tb. XVII (K.12792). No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Mythology
Solar Omens, pl. IX-X
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — Solar Omens, pl. IX-X. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Mythology
Solar Omens, pl. V
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC)) — Solar Omens, pl. V. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
MythologySennacherib's Annals (Taylor Prism)
One of the rare cuneiform texts that explicitly cross-references the Hebrew Bible: the same historical event narrated by both sides. The Taylor Prism gives us the Assyrian view of a moment the biblical authors framed as divine deliverance. It is also a masterpiece of imperial propaganda — the prismatic shape allows the text to be read on six faces, the cuneiform is meticulous, the rhetoric calibrated to terrify potential rebels.
Writing & LiteratureLaw
Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI (the Flood)
The single most important literary discovery of the 19th century. It rewired the understanding of the Bible's literary context and proved that the Mesopotamian flood tradition is older. It is the oldest surviving epic poetry in human history.
MythologyWriting & LiteratureCyrus Cylinder
Often called the world's first declaration of human rights — a 20th-century characterization that overstates its scope; it is, more accurately, a typical Mesopotamian royal accession text framed as Marduk's restoration of order. But its references to religious tolerance and the return of exiled peoples (which the Hebrew Bible echoes in describing the end of the Babylonian Exile) have made it one of the most politically resonant cuneiform artifacts ever recovered.
LawWriting & Literature
Cuneiform tablet- Atra-hasis, Babylonian flood myth MET 266810
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Babylonian or Achaemenid; Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed
Mythology
Cuneiform tablet- Atra-hasis, Babylonian flood myth MET 266811
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Babylonian or Achaemenid; Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed
Mythology
Cuneiform tablet- Gula incantation MET hb86 11 130
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Babylonian or Achaemenid; Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed
Mythology
Cuneiform tablet- ritual fragment MET ME86 11 359
Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Achaemenid or Seleucid; Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed
Mythology