College of Archaeology

The Department of Ancient Iraqi Languages at the College of Archeology, University of Mosul, held a seminar entitled (Texts of Baskets on Tablets pisan_dub_ba from the city of Eri-Sakrek) on Tuesday 1/9/2024. The seminar delivered by Assistant Professor Dr. Mahmoud Hamid Ahmed and part of the seminar was attended by Assistant Professor Dr. Yasser Jaber Khalil, Asst. Dean for Scientific Affairs and Assistant Lecturer Khalis Abdul Karim Farman, Assistant Dean for Administrative Affairs and Assistant Professor Dr. Moaz Habash Khadr, Head of the Department of Ancient Iraqi Languages, and a number of college staff in Dr. Behnam Abu Al-Souf’s hall in the college.
This paper came to shed light on an important type of Sumerian cuneiform texts known as tablet basket texts (pisan-dub-ba), dating back to the era of Ur III (2012-2004 BC), and from the city of Eri-Sakrek, a city rich in types of texts with multiple contents. Collecting these texts, analyzing them, and knowing their contents and dates, we found that they had one general wording. They were also written on regular texts and in the form of clay shapes known as bulla. The purpose of writing these texts, which were tied with strings to the nozzles of the baskets of the tablets, was to find out what was inside those. The baskets of texts, what are their contents, the period of time they belong to, and who is responsible for preserving them, all of these matters constitute an important aspect of the archiving and preservation processes, which indicate the extent of accuracy and organization of the administrative institutions in the era of Ur III in general, and the institutions of the city of Eri-Sakric in particular.