Art Exhibition on Cuneiform Accounting in Ancient Mesopotamia
Think of a theme for your exhibit (read the description for the assignment below), and the works of art or architectural fragments in the Metropolitan Museum and / or the Brooklyn Museum that you would include to illustrate it. Email me your suggested title for your show, a one-paragraph description of what it would be about (theme), at least three of the four objects you would like to include with the name of the museum that they are in and their accession number, and at least two bibliographic references you have consulted that deal with your topic.
Create a descriptive catalogue for your imaginary exhibition of 4 or 5 works of art that illustrate a theme / subject of your choice. Include any combination of works of art or architectural fragments from the countries and regions covered in this course (but keep reading!)
Write a 1 to 2 page introduction to explain the theme of your show and up to one page for each object to explain what it is and how it relates to the show's theme. Since this is a small show, your theme should be correspondingly focused, so "The nude in ancient art", or "Ancient jewelry" for instance are far too general - not good choices! But "Representations of womens' ritual practices in ancient Mesopotamian art", for instance might work very well. Rather than the vague "Ancient Jewelry", you could narrow the subject, for instance, by discussing the techniques that were used (also for ivory carving, cylinder seals, mosaics, etc.)
They must date between 3500 B.C.E. ad 1000 C.E. and have been found in Iraq, Iran, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, the Arabian Peninsula and / or Islamic Spain. DO NOT CHOOSE ANY OBJECTS FROM EGYPT, GREECE OR ITALY! Greek and Roman art and architecture must come from the Middle East!
The course bibliography (at the end of the course syllabus) includes several exhibition catalogues from the Metropolitan Museum that will give you an idea of the format you should follow for your own "show".
Format: Please use word doc (.docx). Length should be 5-6 double spaced pages, not including bibliography or images. 1" margins, 12-point font. Images for each object must be at the end and not as part of your text.
Each object should have as its title / label its basic identification, including where the object was found (where known), material, size (either feet/inches or metre/cm), and the Museum Name & accession number.
Example: Statue of the Emperor Hadrian. Camp of the Sixth Roman Legion, Tel Shalem, Beth Shean Valley. Roman Imperial Period, ca. 117-138 C.E. H. 89 cm., W. 75 cm. Israel Antiquities Authority 1975-763, Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
Instructor Name
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Art Exhibition on Cuneiform Accounting in Ancient Mesopotamia
Introduction
Accounting is among the most critical drivers of civilization. It dates back to ancient Mesopotamia and emerged alongside other developments like counting, money, and, most importantly, writing (Oldroyd and Dobie 96). The role of accounting was to record financial transactions motivated by the need to account for taxes and business transactions in emerging urban centers and to recognize and measure the results of effort and labor. Aside from business transactions and taxation, it was also crucial for priests (in temples) to keep a record of offerings (Saidu). As the ancient societies expanded into more complex civilizations, the need for an improved form of communication (writing), quantification of wealth (counting), and trade gained momentum leading to the formation of private property, systems of commerce, capital, and currency (Mattessich).
As a result, various accounting forms were adopted to keep track of land-based trade, labor, agricultural products, land ownership, and land use (Carmona and Ezzamel 200). Further, the need for recordkeeping was accelerated by the emergence of centralized governance, military operations, conquest, and public work projects. Thus, accounting became an essential tool for rulers to maintain social order through accountability. In this view, the current paper is an art exhibition demonstrating the various accounting forms adopted in the ancient eras of the modern Middle East. This ancient civilization relied on cuneiform tablets to record financial or trade interactions for future reference and as a form of communication.
Use of Cuneiform Tablets
According to Bnayan (pr. 2), early payroll records marked the first steps toward a writing system. In other words, the need for accounting for the exchange of wealth and property among citizens in the Ancient Mesopotamia was central to developing a writing system. Historians also show that the civilization of the Fertile Crescent, known for its expertise in pottery, domestication of animals, and the invention of the wheel, led to the bloom of modern writing. Thus, this need for accounting led to the development of cuneiform, making it possible for the emergence of engineering, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine (Chiriu, Ricci, and Carbonaro). In essence, cuneiform became the first technique of writing in Mesopotamia. Thus, according to Harford (pr. 5), the world’s first accountants counted on cuneiforms to keep records of transactions, property, trade, and taxes.
As the earliest writing system, cuneiform was made by impressing triangular-shaped reeds wedges into wet clay molded into tablets. These tablets were then hardened by heat to provide an almost-permanent record that could not be altered unless through destruction. In their research, Chiriu, Ricci, and Carbonaro argued that the binary engraving technique used on cuneiforms was akin to a black-and-white tale. This is because there were no further details, except for the triangular impressions to differentiate one tablet from another based-on information they carried and their relevance to governance, offerings in temples, or transactions among individuals. In their conclusions, Chiriu and colleagues established that these tablets carried yellow, red, white, and orange pigments that might have been used to add essential details to the impressions. According to Bnayan (pr. 6), thousands of cuneiform tablets exist to date, providing rich insight into the business affairs of ancient Mesopotamia. Some of these tablets are found in the Metropolitan Museum and form part of the current exhibition on ancient accounting techniques.
Object 1: Promissory Note
Name: Promissory Note for Silver -Establishment of a Harranu-Partnership, Egibi Archive. 1635
Found: Mesopotamia, Modern Hillah.
Date: 550 BCE
Material: Clay
Size: 4.2 X 5.4 X 2 (cm)
Museum: Metropolitan Museum
Accession Number: 79.7.17
A promissory note is an instrument containing a written promise by one party to pay a different party a given sum of money or property, either at a specified date in the future or on demand. It contains critical information such as the principal amount in question, the interest agreed upon, the date of maturity, and the place where the note was issued. They are vital for people seeking personal loans from sources other than banks. Structures of enforcing a promissory note fall between the rigidity of a loan contract and the informal nature of IOU terms. In modern times, students, for instance, can sign promissory notes when seeking education loans from private lenders.
As indicated in figure 1 above, promissory notes are not modern time instruments. Instead, they can be dated back to ancient Mesopotamia. Back then, cash was the only form of a business transaction, which meant merchants traveling long distances had to carry large sums of money. As a result, they were prone to attacks and theft, which could ruin business transactions. Thus, promissory notes emerged as a solution to prevent this form of vandalism. It was also a vital accounting tool as traders and lenders could track what they owed and what was owed as part of bookkeeping. The use of cuneiforms allowed the promissory notes to be kept permanently until the amounts owed were repaid as agreed. Otherwise, they were essential tools (as evidence) for the automatic seizure of property or wealth if the borrower defaulted in paying their loans.
Object 2: Acc...