Table 2 Some of the common and expected functionalities of the inscriptions and iconographies used on tablets.
Name | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
Functionality-7: Recording bookkeeping related information | Tablets with incised inscriptions were often used for recording transactional details and bookkeeping-related information of day-to-day commercial transactions for accounting purposes. | Proto-cuneiform administrative tablets of Mesopotamia (Nissen et al., 1993). Mycenaean tablets with Linear B inscriptions, used in palace administration (Ventris & Chadwick, 1956/1973). |
Functionality-8: Recording trade, craft, and commodity control-related information or regulations | Tablets containing seal-impressions, which are used in commercial contexts, often encode standardized commercial regulations, and trade/craft specific information | Seal imageries on certain seal-impressed tablets and documents of the Uruk Period of Mesopotamia, encoded “complex messages that referred to the subject or object being controlled (textile production, food distribution) as well as the identity of the controlling authority” (Pittman, 2018 p.18). |
Functionality-9: Encoding official titles, privileges, permits, restrictions, and responsibilities | Seals and tablets worn and carried by individuals often functioned as visual identifiers, indicating the official designations, responsibilities, privileges, or commercial permits assigned to their bearers. | Various official titles and/or designations, such as “tax-collector” (Földi, 2021), “vizier”, “royal-treasurer”, “storeroom-manager”, “door-keeper”, “foreman”, “military officer”, (Wegner, 2018 pp.239, 351) etc., are found in the official and/or institutional seals/tablets used in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece, in different time periods. |
Functionality-10: Working primarily as protective amulets | Certain tablets were primarily used as protective or magical amulets, and/or votive artifacts. Such tablets are usually found in religious and funerary contexts | Some royal-name and private-name scarabs of ancient Egypt, were primarily used as amulets (Ben-Tor, 2018 p.293; Smith, 2018 p.303). |
