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Henry Clay Speaks in Favor of the Compromise of 1850
Henry Clay (1777-1852), the Great Compromiser, takes the Senate floor one final time to present the Compromise of 1850, drawn by P. F. Rothermel, engraved by R. Whitechurch, published circa 1855.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
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Curse Tablet from Pella, Ancient Kingdom of Macedonia
Pella curse tablet, lead scroll, first half of the 4th century BCE. Writing and dedicating a curse tablet (katadesmos) was an act of practical magic in the Greco-Roman world. Curse tablets were fragmental sheets of lead—or, in rare instances...
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Cuneiform Tablet with Envelope from Alalakh
This clay tablet still has its clay envelope. The tablet mentions a legal case before Niqmepuh, King of Iamhad (Aleppo) concerning the legacy of two houses. The seal impressions of ten witnesses (including the King) survive on the fragmentary...
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Newly Discovered Tablet II of the Epic of Gilgamesh
This is the newly discovered Tablet II of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The upper surface is the obverse. The image was intentionally shot focusing on the center because the tablet has not been published yet. The cuneiform text has been transliterated...
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Hymn to Nisaba
The Hymn to Nisaba (c. 3rd millennium BCE) is a poem praising Nisaba, the Sumerian goddess of writing and accounts who also served as scribe of the gods. The poem is officially dedicated to Enki, the god of wisdom (sometimes given as her...
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Linear B Script
Linear B script was the writing system of the Mycenaean civilization of the Bronze Age Mediterranean. The syllabic script was used to write Mycenaean Greek from c. 1500 to c. 1200 BCE. It was deciphered by Michael Ventris in 1952, and so...
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Newly Discovered Tablet II of the Epic of Gilgamesh [Reverse]
This is the reverse of the newly discovered Tablet II of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The cuneiform text (on the obverse) has been transliterated by Professor Farouk Al-Rawi and an article will be published by him soon. The cuneiform inscription...
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Mesopotamian Tablet with Puchase Details from Dilbat
This tablet lists purchases of land by a man named Tupsikka, with payments made in baskets of barley. One transaction reads "The price of the field is 90 gur-sag-gal 16 quarts of oil". Stone tablet, about 2400-2200 BCE. Excavated by Hormuzd...
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Part of Tablet V, the Epic of Gilgamesh
A newly discovered partially broken tablet V of the Epic of Gilgamesh: "the episode of the journey of Gilgamesh and Enkidu." According to Professor Farouk Al-Rawi (of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), this...
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A Mesopotamian Tablet with Gynaecological Recipe Against Miscarriage
A medical recipe was written on this clay tablet to prevent miscarriage. It recommends that a women should wear for 3 days a particular species of dried edible mouse which has been stuffed with myrrh. Probably from Babylon, Mesopotamia, Iraq...