New Exhibit, Lecture Series Examines Origins of Early Writing

An exhibition currently open at the UA's Special Collections is spotlighting cuneiform writings, and a lecture series that coincides with the exhibit will feature researchers and experts who will speak about ancient works.

A new and unique exhibition and lecture series hosted by the University of Arizona Libraries exploring the origins of daily activities – reading and writing – is now underway.

The UA Special Collections is showcasing "Writings Out of Time: The University of Arizona's Cuneiform Collection," an exhibition that will be on display through Dec. 8 and accompanied by a lecture series.

Beth Nakhai, an associate professor of Judaic studies at the the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, curated the exhibition, which features Arizona State Museum holdings in Near Eastern antiquities, including cuneiform tablets. 

Both events were organized to 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.E. and are unquestionably the oldest archive of literary materials in in 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 stone slab with a bas-relief carving, comes from the palace of the great Assyrian king Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, located in northern Iraq.

The lectures, which will be held in Special Collections, are: 

• Oct.1: At 3 p.m., Anne D. Kilmer, Emeritus Professor of Assyriology at the University of California at Berkeley, will speak about the significance of ancient Near Eastern literacy and libraries and the importance both have to the scholarly tradition "of the West."
• Oct. 19: At 3 p.m., members of a speaker panel will make presentations. The speakers are Ewa Wasilewska, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Utah, who will present "From Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Arizona: The First Writing, Indiana Jones and the Arizona State Museum Basement's Mystery;" Ronald S. Hendel, the Norma and Sam Dabby Professor of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, who will speak on "The Origins of the Alphabet: From Proto-Sinaitic to Greek;" and Richard H. Wilkinson, UA Regents' Professor of Egyptian Archaeology, who will present his talk, "Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Writing with Pictures and Painting with Words."
• Oct. 29: Held at 4 p.m. the lecture,"Archaeological Preservation Efforts and Agonies in Northern Iraq, 2006," will be presented by Jesse Ballenger, a doctoral degree candidate and Haury Fellow in the UA's School of Anthropology.
• Nov. 5: Beginning at 4 p.m, David Owen, the Bernard and Jane Schapiro Professor of Ancient Near Eastern and Judaic studies at Cornell University, will present "Life and Death on the Estate of a Princess in 21st Century BCE Mesopotamia." Owen is also and curator of Tablet Collections.
• Nov. 9: The lecture, "The Art of Writing in Ancient Israel," will be held at 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, 3800 E. River Rd. The event is being presented as part of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies Shaol Pozez Memorial Lectureship Series. William Schniedewind, the Kershaw Chair of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, will speak.

All events are free and open to the public. Also, the items presented during the exhibition were either purchased by or donated to the Arizona State Museum in the first half of the 20th century.