Detail of cuneiform tablet. Arizona State Museum. Copyright Jannelle Weakly, 2009.

Special Collections at the University Libraries announces its newest exhibit, "Writings Out of Time: The University of Arizona’s Cuneiform Collection," which examines the origins of early writing and literacy. Curated by Beth Alpert Nakhai, professor of Judaic studies at the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, "Writings Out of Time" is a showcase of the Arizona State Museum’s extraordinary archaeological holdings in Near Eastern antiquities.

The exhibit and a fall lecture series will illuminate some of the world’s first methods of writing. The cuneiform tablets on display – primarily records of business transactions – are from half a dozen sites in southern Iraq. The tablets date from 2100-1800 B.C. and are unquestionably the oldest archive of literary materials in the state of Arizona. Other objects in "Writings Out of Time" include engraved cylinder and stamp seals from Iraq and Egypt, a piece of papyrus with demotic writing, and Imperial Roman-era Egyptian lamps signed by their makers. One piece, a unique stone slab with a bas-relief carving, comes from the palace of the great Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (668-627 B.C.) in Nineveh, northern Iraq.

A special series of lectures focused on the theme “The Roots of Literacy in the Ancient Near East” will be held throughout the fall. Lecturers will include faculty from the UA and scholars from around the country. A schedule is available online.