Cuneiform Tablets

Drawn to Nippur by the prospect of finding ancient texts, Penn’s team eventually uncovered more than 50,000 cuneiform tablets.  Hilprecht boasted he had discovered the remains of the Temple Library. Actually most were found by Haynes before Hilprecht arrived at the end of the final season. And rather than a library, the finds represent the remains of a scribal quarter and its school rooms. Many tablets represent learning exercises for young scribes, while others copy great works of literature; still others are business documents or mundane correspondence.