Archaeologists discover 3,500-year-old clay tablet after earthquake

By Ashley Strickland, CNN

(CNN) – Archaeologists have discovered a small, 3,500-year-old tablet written in cuneiform script during excavations at a site in Turkey, which may shed light on what life was like during the Late Bronze Age.

Cuneiform, one of the oldest forms of writing, was used throughout the ancient Middle East. Cuneiform recorded the Sumerian, Akkadian, and other languages ​​of Mesopotamia, the region of the world's earliest known civilization and now modern-day Iraq. Highly educated scribes created the distinctive, wedge-shaped letters using reeds on clay tablets.

The newly discovered tablet, dating back to the 15th century BC, appears to have been a detailed receipt. The ancient inscription, written in Akkadian cuneiform script, describes the purchase of a large quantity of furniture.

“We believe that this 28-gram tablet will provide a new perspective in understanding the economic structure and state system in the Late Bronze Age,” Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Ersoy said in a statement.

The plaque measures just 1.7 inches by 1.4 inches (4.2 cm by 3.5 cm) and is 0.6 inches (1.6 cm) thick. Researchers found the artifact outside the gate of the ancient city of Alalakh, now known as the Tell Atchaneh archaeological site.

But perhaps most surprising is that the small plaque was found in July during restoration work after devastating earthquakes. In the wake of natural disaster, archaeology has become a form of recovery and healing for the community, said Dr. Murat Acar, the excavation team leader.

Request old furniture

British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley was the first to excavate Alalakh in the 1930s. He discovered an archive of cuneiform tablets in a fort next to the gate, said Dr. Jacob Lauinger, an associate professor of Assyriology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

“The new tablet either comes from the same tablet archive or from another uncarved tablet in the castle that was washed into the gate at some point,” Launge said.

Lauinger and Zeynep Turker, a doctoral student in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University, are currently translating and studying the tablet with Akar, an associate professor in the Department of Archaeology at Mustafa Kemal University in Turkey.

The results will be published in a peer-reviewed study led by Turker, but so far their translation of the tablet reveals the purchase of nearly 200 or more wooden tables, chairs and benches. While other tablets from Alalakh mention furniture production at the site, nothing has reached the scale of what is listed in the newly discovered tablet, Lauinger said.

The team is studying the relationship between this tablet and other tablets discovered by Woolley, as well as cuneiform tablets mentioning furniture from other Late Bronze Age sites.

He added that administrative texts, such as those found at Alalakh, recorded the number of raw materials and finished products created, distributed and used by palace workers.

“For this reason, it provides incredible insights into the ancient society and economy of Alalakh—we are literally reading the accounting records of an ancient accountant from nearly 3,500 years ago!” Lauinger said in an email.

But the team is also trying to figure out how the panel fits into the broader context of the society that lived in the ancient city at the time. The researchers believe the furniture was made around the same time, rather than in batches of small orders that accumulated over time. Now, the team wants to explore different historical scenarios that would have required so many pieces of furniture.

“Was this for a special occasion in Alalakh, like a royal wedding?” Lawinger said. “Was this for a religious festival? Was Alalakh producing furniture for export? Hopefully we can start to rule out some of these scenarios and thus demonstrate that other scenarios were more likely.”

Saving a Lost City

After Woolley’s excavations ended in the late 1940s, the site was left to decay for about a century, and then nature reclaimed Tell Atchaneh, Akar said. The site was in a fragile state and almost unrecognizable, covered by a thick layer of a deep-rooted wild plant called Syrian mesquite, when Akar and his colleagues began transforming the site in 2012.

Since 2019, the team has taken on the daunting task of protecting, enhancing and preserving the mud architecture of the ancient city.

Then, in February 2023, multiple earthquakes struck along a fault line about a kilometer away from Tell Atchaneh. A 7.8-magnitude quake struck 11 cities in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6, 2023, followed by a 7.5-magnitude quake nine hours later. A third 6.3-magnitude quake and 40,000 aftershocks struck 14 days later. Tens of thousands of people were killed.

Some sections of the new excavation areas at the site collapsed, and the extensive artifacts uncovered by Woolley’s investigations were severely damaged. However, the archaeological research complex the team used remained standing, and became a hub for humanitarian support during the first months after the quakes, according to a July study co-authored by Akar and colleagues and published in the Journal of Field Archaeology.

He added that a few months later, restoration and excavation work resumed at the site to provide an environment for students who were traumatized by the effects of the earthquake. To repair the damage caused by the earthquakes, the local community made about 4,500 mud bricks during the 2023 field work season.

“We used archaeology as a means of recovery and healing,” Akar said. “Continuing work at the site after the earthquake was also important, providing income for the local community and a means of preserving their cultural heritage.”

The tablet was found during new excavations at Tell Ateshna. As excavations continue, the research team is curious to see if similar tablets have turned up in a part of the castle that Woolley has never excavated, Lauanger said.

“Some archaeologists go their entire careers without finding cuneiform tablets, so this is a rare and certainly exciting find,” Lauinger said.

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