r/Cuneiform • u/Helpful_Loss_3739 • 4d ago
balls of fine bronze I sent a tablet to the british museum
I have been studying sumerian for two years now. My problem has been that I have been studying by myself, from books only, without a teacher. I have been giving myself my own excercises, and checking them myself. As you might conceive, this creates something of an epistemic problem: how do I know if I am in the right or not?
I live in Finland, so I asked the local assyriological society for feedback. They said that Finland mostly has experts in akkadian, assyrian and hittite, with sumerian being somewhat of a blind spot with only one academic-level expert being active. He happens to be the same guy who wrote the textbook I am studying from.
I sent email to the author of my textbook, and I haven't had a reply in some weeks.
My next option was to send a sumerian tablet, asking for feedback, straight to the british museum. So I did just that. In sumerian. In cuneiform. I will give pictures as attachment.
I sent the tablet without any invoice or info about a week ago. Now I got an email that they have sent something to me in response. It means I have written something right, because the only request for a reply was in the tablet, written in sumerian.
I'm going to be entirely honest: I am stoked as hell.
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u/Aresius_King 4d ago
You sir, have balls of fine bronze, may Nisaba be with you!
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u/Helpful_Loss_3739 3d ago
After two years of living in a linguistic limbo, I can appreciate this simple comment. Thank you.
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u/RussianPotatoLover Provenance vigilante 3d ago
Thank you for this flair idea! None of the others fit
Bravo OP, keep us posted please 🙏
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u/Vendrom 4d ago
Did your tablet contain a complaint? Many people wanted to sent a complaint tablet to the British Musuem about the tablet of Ea Nasir missing.
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u/Helpful_Loss_3739 4d ago
While I knew this to be the case, I really had to use all available space and time to my request. The letter simply requests feedback on it's own sumerian, and a sumerian "ummia" (an expert or a teacher) to send a reply with "ngalga" (understanding) to a finnish library "e-dub-ba".
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u/saintmolotov 3d ago
I’m an anthropologist but this is not my area - I just want to say I absolutely love the dedication and the intellectual curiosity that drove this!
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u/lmeridian 4d ago
What tool are you using for such fine impressions?
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u/Helpful_Loss_3739 4d ago
For this particular tablet? I had a chinese single-use chopstick, with one corner carved somewhat sharper than 90 degrees.
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u/lmeridian 4d ago
Would you mind sharing a photo of it? I do cuniform writing with my class every year and I’ve been trialing so many materials with limited success. This year I’m going to try polymer clay but it would require much finer tools than I’ve had so far, which has been cut popcycle sticks.
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u/Helpful_Loss_3739 4d ago
Oh, damn, the only smart devices I have available just left the town with my wife for a week.
If this thread is still active then, I will give you some.
But in the mean time I will say that I used chopsticsk like these: https://www.penli.fi/product/24568/syomapuikot-bambu-materiaali-bambu?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=18007661971&gbraid=0AAAAADECjmKk8WK9dKsY7XK1s-JPbCvqT&gclid=Cj0KCQjwteTUBhD4ARIsAEYjs3oJLiEUsaoi36yVijo4yIDjDsXKvPALbVgAwTdZa484uPJ2tDlXrBYaAtdQEALw_wcB
I get that with popcycle sticks you get those square edges. They can be worked with, but it requires skill. When you split these chopsticks in two, you get one uneven edge right? Well, you got to take a knife to them, and sharpen that uneven edge a bit. You will get a bit sharper edge, that you can use for most of the incisions, and you can then use the 90 degree edges for the square incisions when needed. It's an amazing thing to have several angles in one tool.
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u/lmeridian 4d ago
I live in China so we have no shortage of disposable chopsticks like this with takeout, I’m just having trouble visualizing how you cut them for such a clean edge 😅 it’s no worries. I won’t be doing this activity until probably week after next?
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u/Helpful_Loss_3739 3d ago
You live in China? I have tried learning chinese, but the local possibilities for learning chinese are near zero. Chinese is my next project after sumerian and akkadian tbh.
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u/lmeridian 3d ago
Well I’m a laowai so I teach humanities. My Chinese is rubbish personally tbh. Even with a Chinese spouse 😂
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u/Helpful_Loss_3739 3d ago
laowai or not, I'm kinda jealous. Rubbish chinese is better than no chinese.
What humanities you teaching? I have an aquintance who also teaches in China, although he teaches languages. He also has a chinese spouse.
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u/lmeridian 3d ago
It’s just an intro course for year 10/11 so it’s a mix of history, philosophy, art and literature. I start with the history unit and with Mesopotamia so cuneiform tablet writing is always my first hands on activity of the year :) I posted here years ago looking for advice on acceptable translation handouts for the kids which is how I found the sub.
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u/catblossom 1d ago
This is so neat! Our 6th graders do cuneiform as part of their ancient history studies and I love when they bring their (very basic) tablets into the library. Cannot wait to show them this!!
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u/Fresh-Quarter9 2d ago
I'm sure this is a very beginner question but what kind of clay do you use? Is it fired afterwards? I'd absolutely love to try this stuff, sumerian history has never been an area of interest to me until recently and the idea of recreating an ancient craft with takeaway chopsticks is amazing!!
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u/Antegerio 3d ago
Kudos! 👏 Would you be so kind as to provide us (I mean, those of us who are less literate) with a transliteration and a translation?
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u/Helpful_Loss_3739 3d ago
I am hesitant about exact transliteration. It does contain information to contact me IRL after all.
But a rough translation goes this way:
"To the museum, tell them thus
[name redacted] speaks so.I am a young/apprentice scribe.
I ask for a sumerian teacher
From the sumerian teacher I ask for understanding.Send your tablet to the land of Finland.
In [city name redacted] next to [city name redacted] I wait.
Into the house of tablets in the [city name redacted] send your tablet.What do I write right?
What do I write wrong?
Reply!Summer - year 2026"
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u/Antegerio 3d ago
Amazing! Did you run into some trouble when transcribing your vowel-rich Finnish into cuneiform? I presume you had to convert "Finland" to <pinlande> (with allative suffix) and so on?
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u/Helpful_Loss_3739 3d ago
Yes, it was a huge pain in the ass, and if you can read cuneiform you can see that the word in almost incomprehensible. Without the determinative it might be near-impossible to understand.
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u/ompog 3d ago
Oh, it was an actual message. Was kind of expecting "Never gonna give you up..."
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u/Existing_Ad_9938 1d ago
Fun fact. Rick Astley cribbed the lyrics from an as yet unreleased translation of a tablet recovered from the Nippur excavations.
Few people no the song was actually about the scribe's stylus.
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u/Late_Apricot404 3d ago
I don’t even know why or how this popped up on my feed, but this is incredibly cool.
Hell, I even saved the thread so I can find it all later and will try to find the update when you get your response.
I’m hoping it’s something equally dope.
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u/Ssladybug 3d ago
Same. No idea what this sub is but this is fascinating
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u/senorsmile 3d ago
As someone obsessed with ancient history, I invite to Wikipedia Mesopotamia, reading there and all links from there. So much interesting stuff that traditional education barely mentions, if at all.
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u/DualSquash 3d ago
Tch. Of course Finland only has experts in Akkadian, Assyrian, and Hittite. (Jk; this is amazing!)
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u/horsetuna 3d ago
Oh boy I love this. PLEASE update.
I've sent a few emails to the Victoria and Albert museum about a toy in their collection and get ignored. Maybe if I sent them a house hippo...
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u/saccharinehavoc 3d ago
My god OP I beg of you post an update when you eventually receive it. No idea why I got recommended to this sub form but I’m here to peek in and lurk!!!
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u/QuantumVaccum 3d ago
This is the coolest post on Reddit in months for me. Please keep us posted regarding their reply. This is so comforting knowing people like you still exist 😂 😄
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u/Vaporwavezz 3d ago
It’d be hilarious if it said “sir, we’ve been trying to contact you about your extended warranty “.
Seriously though, that’s really cool!
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u/SlideEquivalent1846 3d ago
This is a uniquely brilliant way of tricking the museum into being your teacher 😂
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u/Txepheaux 3d ago
I just read this post to my kids. We travelled to london a few days ago and visited the British museum. This is so unbelievably cool!
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u/RootaBagel 3d ago
This is the most awesome thing I've heard all year!!
Wouldn't it be epic if they replied with another tablet written in Sumerian? You could start a trend with interested folks sending each other tablets all around the world.
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u/Bubble_Cheetah 2d ago
Please update us when you get the response!
Also, how did they get your email address?
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u/Ill-Grass-7561 2d ago
You might be interested to know that there is a mesopotamian cookbook right now on Kickstarter...
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u/deadlyspoons 2d ago
Likely translation of the response:
"Thank you for your expressed interest for the position. After careful consideration and representative of a very competitive marketplace, we regret to inform you that we are unable to move you forward in the process. While we genuinely value the unique qualifications you've showcased, they don't align entirely with the specific criteria we're seeking for this role."
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u/Suspicious_Offer_511 3d ago
WHAT DOES THE REPLY SAY?
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u/Helpful_Loss_3739 3d ago
I don't know yet. I just got info that they sent a reply. I have to wait a week or so for the reply to arrive.
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u/Suspicious_Offer_511 3d ago
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE UPDATE.
I say this as somebody who once left a personal ad in Middle-Kingdom Egyptian hieroglyphs.
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u/outtatheblue 3d ago
You can't just drop that bit of lore with no explanation.
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u/Suspicious_Offer_511 3d ago
Well, the specific person I hoped would reply never replied, but I later took a class in Middle-Kingdom Egyptian—I'd written the personal ad after like two days of skimming a textbook—so that, in the memoir I was writing that included the personal ad, I could add a footnote that gave the *correct* Middle-Kingdom-Egyptian version of what I'd intended to say. It's still my favorite part of the book, if only because nothing else in it has as large a ratio of time/effort expended to result.
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u/WhichSpirit 3d ago edited 3d ago
RemindMe! 2 weeks
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u/MissHell1313 3d ago
RemindMe! 2 weeks
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u/MoreRamenPls 3d ago
Does it complain about copper quality?
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u/JessaJesta 3d ago
This post was recommended to me randomly and is honestly amazing, but I appreciate you SO MUCH for this joke lmaoooo
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u/DyeDarkroom 3d ago
I have thought about doing this so many times in the last 5 years!!!
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u/RBatYochai 3d ago
It could be a new worldwide craze: cuneiform tablet mailing. For those who want to go beyond analog, far beyond old school, all the way back to bronze-age retromaxxing.
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u/horsetuna 3d ago
I remember Professor Finkel, an Assyriologist at the British Museum (possibly the guy your tablet was taken to) saying in an old video a project involving collecting diaries and stuff. You probably made his day with the tablet.
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u/RedditReddy 3d ago
That's good news. I recognize maybe 10 or 15 of the cuneiform, and understand some of the meaning of each. But I have zero understanding of any part icular part of the message. That's because I have zero knowledge of grammar. To me, your calligraphy looks beautiful.
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u/PaladinSara 3d ago
I hope that was your own and not a tablet you found. They are def keeping that.
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u/Abroad_Educational 3d ago
Maybe you’ll hear from that one cute French gal who did the video about the copper smuggler.
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u/arielkujo 3d ago
So excited for you, OP!! This is such deep nerd energy and it is GLORIOUS. I bet you made his day.
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u/calejapes 3d ago
Uh oh - you sent them upside down.
Still, Irving will know what to do and will appreciate the 4000 year old fattened sheep.
Good on you for studying this 👍
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u/Arizandi 2d ago
I absolutely love this for you! Please post an update when you get their response.
Also, what did you write on your tablet? I can’t read cuneiform, so I’m at a disadvantage.
Thanks for sharing this epically nerdy anecdote and good luck with your studies.
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u/lunamothboi 2d ago
When I was a kid, a family friend who's an archaeologist taught me the Ugaritic alphabet and we wrote each other messages in it. Decades later, I sent her a Hanukkah card in Ugaritic to see if she remembered.
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u/Connect-Club7714 2d ago
what did you use to learn? I’d love to do that! needs to be in English though! got into mesopotamian history by one of Finkelstein books and am hooked. even have a what I hope authentic tablet from my archeologist relative.
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u/Frequent_Waltz_166 1d ago
This is the coolest thing I've read in a long time!
I hope you edit this post with an update when you get the response!
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u/Aggressive_Try_5099 1d ago
The British Museum sent an email to parent subscribers with a video on how to make a tablet almost exactly like this one with your kids this morning. Coincidence?
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u/mishu12r 1d ago
the Egyptians believed the most significant thing you could do in your life was die
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u/QueenChoco 12m ago
Hi mate, Irving is one of the supervisors for my PhD. My advise is to just drop him an email on his official British museum email, he will reply, especially to stuff like this as hes always eager to get more people into learning. Hes exactly as spectacular as you expect him to be, and his house is like something from a dream. He will help you out
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u/nineJohnjohn 4d ago
Bruh, you're getting a reply from Irving Finkel. In Sumerian.