Publisher's Synopsis
Excavations in the 1920s at the site of Jemdet Nasr, 100km south of Baghdad, revealed a number of early cuneiform tablets dating to c.3000BC. Although details of the tablets remain unpublished, Matthews discusses the context in which the tablets existed, the background to the 1920s excavations, the location and context of the site, and describes the non-textual finds including seals and seal impressions, ceramics, stone vessels, spindle whorls, weights, baked clay objects, beads, tokens and gaming pieces. The publication of this material adds much valuable information 'to the study of early society at the time of the development of urban literate civilisation on the south Mesopotamian plains'.
