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Cotsen (Lloyd E.) cuneiform tablets collection
LSC.1883
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Lloyd E. Cotsen cuneiform tablets collection
source:
Cotsen, Lloyd E.
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.1883
Physical Description:
20.6 linear feet
(206 custom boxes)
Date (inclusive): circa 3200-1500 BCE
Abstract: The collection consists of 215 cuneiform tablets, the majority of which were written by students in ancient Mesopotamian schools.
Tablet subjects include writing composition and language, mathematics, science, law, and religion. The chronological range
of the tablets extends from the Uruk Period (c. 3200 BCE) to the Old Babylonian period (c. 1800-1600 BCE).
Physical Location: Held at UCLA Library Special Collections. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. All requests to access
special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are primarily in Sumerian and Akkadian, some materials are in West Semitic.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained
by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue
the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
[Identification of item], Lloyd E. Cotsen cuneiform tablets collection (Collection 1883). UCLA Library Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Cotsen Family Foundation, gift, 2011.
The Lloyd Cotsen cuneiform tablets collection was created from smaller, private collections, acquired over several decades.
The tablets in the Cotsen Collection were chosen specifically for their scholastic content. The tablets were integrated into
the Cotsen Children's Library Collection housed at Princeton University. In 2011 the Cotsen Institute donated the cuneiform
tablet section of the Children's Library to UCLA Special Collections.
Processed by Sara Brumfield in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Kelley Wolfe Bachli,
2011. Finding aid revisions by Octavio Olvera, 2017, and Courtney Dean, 2019.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user
interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides
a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive
processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
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existing description of our materials that contains language
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UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9971042013606533
Lloyd E. Cotsen (1929-2017) was a former chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Neutrogena Corporation. Cotsen
earned a bachelor's degree in History from Princeton University (1950), served in Navy during the Korean War, and received
an MBA from Harvard Business School (1957). He was an avid collector of materials related to folk art, children's literature,
and archeology, and accumulated vast collections of Japanese baskets, textiles, children's books, and Chinese mirrors. Over
his lifetime he donated portions of his collections to a varity of insitutions, including San Fransico's Asian Art Museum,
Princeton Univeristy, and the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2000 UCLA renamed its Institute
of Archaeology the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.
This collection provides a comprehensive view of scribal training and writing techniques in the Mesopotamian educational system
covering a span of 1600 years. The collection consists of 215 cuneiform tablets (211 school texts and four non-school texts)
from Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq). These tablets were written in the Mesopotamian school, the
eduba ("House of Tablets"), by students training to become professional scribes,
dubsar ("tablet writer").
The majority of tablets in this collection date to the Old Babylonian period (c. 1900-1600 BCE), which was known for the development
and proliferation of individual scribal schools. In addition to the Old Babylonian texts there are tablets from the Uruk III
period (c. 3200-3000 BCE), the Early Dynastic III period (c. 2600-2350 BCE), the Old Akkadian period (c. 2340-2200 BCE), and
the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2100-2000 BCE).
School texts cover a rich variety of topics, yet comprise a very small percentage of known cuneiform documents. This collection
includes exercises in vocabulary, sign formation, literature, grammar, law, epistles, administration, sealing and stylus practices.
These student exercises cover the entire curriculum of scribal training, from the most basic beginner lessons to the advanced
lessons of the final stage of education. The wide variety of exercise offers researchers unique insight into the everyday
life of the ancient Mesopotamian.
Typical for the period and genre, the majority of the school texts are written in Sumerian. A few dozen tablets, mostly letters,
are written in Akkadian, while a handful of lexical texts contain multiple languages (Sumerian, Akkadian, West Semitic). It
is not clear in the remaining tablets, mostly mathematical exercises, which language is being used by the scribe.
The non-school texts include one legal document from the Early Dynastic period, and three letters written by king Rim-Suen
of Larsa (c. 1822-1763 BCE). These royal letters are part of an ancient archive that has since been dispersed across several
collections in America and Europe.
Tablets are arranged and described at the item level.
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online:
Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative: Cotsen Collection of Cuneiform Tablets.
Edward A. Dickson Cuneiform Tablet collection (LSC 1813). Available at UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Cumberland Clark Cuneiform Tablet Collection (LSC 1826). Available at UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Cuneiform tablets.
Sumerian language -- Writing
Akkadian language -- Writing
Scribes -- Iraq -- Babylonia -- History -- Sources
Education -- Iraq -- Babylonia -- History -- Sources
Cotsen, Lloyd E.