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Archaeologists in Turkey have discovered and deciphered a 3,500 - year - old clay tablet , ascertain that it details a shopping list for a " large amount " of furniture that ’s not so different from today ’s inventory .
The first line of the newfound tablet , which go out to the fifteenth century B.C. , detail a large purchase of wooden table , chairperson and stools . While it ’s undecipherable who wrote the pad and who made the transaction , " this tablet is useful for understanding the economical anatomical structure and state of matter system of the Late Bronze Age,“Mehmet Ersoy , Turkey ’s minister of culture and tourism , enounce in a translatedstatement .
A small Akkadian cuneiform tablet was discovered in Tell Atchana, Turkey. Uncovering the text may provide clues to the economic and governmental structure of the time.
The furniture list hold Akkadiancuneiform , a logotype - syllabic committal to writing soma vernacular in the ancient Middle East . Now weigh nonextant , Akkadianis one of the earliest known Semitic lyric spoken and written from the third millennium B.C. until the first century A.D. The language is link up to Arabic and Hebrew and was used across a vast geographical area cross Iran to Egypt and southern Iraq to primal Turkey .
An excavation team found the tablet , which measure 1.6 by 0.6 inches ( 4 by 1.6 centimeters ) and librate 0.06 Lebanese pound ( 28 gramme ) , during return work after an quake shook the Old City of Alalakh in Hatay ’s Reyhanlı district .
Alalakh , now an archaeologic site known as Tell Atchana , sits near present - day Antakya in southern Turkey . In the second millenary B.C. , Alalakh was the capital metropolis of the Kingdom of Mukish and the largest colony in the region . TheAmorites , a Semitic - speaking mass from western Mesopotamia ( New - day Syria ) , occupied the arena , which is now covered with enceinte mounds , or " tell . "
The Old City of Alalakh was once the largest settlement in the Middle to Late Bronze Age in southern Turkey. The area is now covered in large mounds.(Image credit: Courtesy of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism)
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A clay Akkadian cuneiform tablet was discovered in Turkey during construction work.(Image credit: Courtesy of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism)
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In the15th century B.C. , the metropolis of Alalakh belong to theMittani Empire . The part was get laid for its local production of clayware , metal and glass . By 1350 B.C. , King Shattiwaza of the Mittani Kingdom cede Alalakh and the area west of the Euphrates River to the Hittite king Suppiluliuma . Archaeologists are now studying tablets found in ancient castles and palaces to understand the social dynamics of the realm .
The dig team in Turkey is working with Johns Hopkins University AssyriologistJacobLauingerand his doctorial studentZeynep Türkerto discover more about the tablet .
An epigrapher analyzes the Akkadian cuneiform to decipher the text written on the tablet.(Image credit: Courtesy of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism)
" We believe it will offer a new perspective , " Ersoy say .
Johns Hopkins Assyriologist Jacob Lauinger and doctoral student Zeynep Türker study the inscription on the tablet.(Image credit: Courtesy of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism)
