clay tablet
Mesopotamian writing surface
A clay tablet is a flat piece of clay used as a writing surface in ancient civilizations, particularly Mesopotamia.
Scribes pressed wedge-shaped marks into wet clay with a stylus, creating cuneiform script, then dried or fired the tablets to preserve them.
Thousands survive, recording everything from trade records to epic poetry like Gilgamesh.
- cuneiformStylus-impressed ancient script
- cuneiform scriptWedge-shaped ancient writing
- ancient writingInscriptions from antiquity
- MesopotamiaTigris-Euphrates river region
- Fertile CrescentMideast arc where civilization began
Sumerian · stylus · wedge · inscription · ancient · scribe · Babylonian · writing · mud · kiln · archive · Akkadian · Gilgamesh · record · pressed · dried · fragment · broken pieces
- MesopotamiaBabylon, Sumer, Tigris, Mesopotamia, Euphrates
- artifactspottery shards, knives, masks, pottery, antiquity
- ancient artifactsjade mask, Viking sword, bronze sculptures, antiquities, Roman coin
- ancient communicationsmoke signal, hieroglyphs, carrier pigeon, pictographs, pictograms
- historical recordsdiary, census record, annual reviews, letter, government records
- writing toolspen, pencil, ballpoint pens, fountain pens, gel pens
clay tabletdigital screen
Electronic visual output surface
computer screen · electronic display · papyrus · paper · parchment
clay tabletcloud storage
Online data preservation service
hard drive · USB drive · computer memory · database · solid-state drive
clay tabletdisappearing message
Communication that auto-deletes
sticky note · whiteboard · skywriting · chalk drawing · voice message
clay, tablet, clays, clayey, clayish, tablets, tablature, table, tables