Writings Out of Time
Writings Out of Time Fall Lecture Series
The Exhibit
The archaeological exhibit Writings Out of Time: The University of Arizona’s Cuneiform Collection showcases the Arizona State Museum’s extraordinary – and unexpected – holdings in Near Eastern antiquities. It will be open to the public from Sept. 14 – Dec. 18, 2009, in the Special Collections Library. A special series of lectures on the theme “The Roots of Literacy in the Ancient Near East” will take place throughout the fall. Lecturers include faculty from The University of Arizona and scholars from around the country. This free exhibit and lecture series, open to the campus and the community, furthers The University of Arizona’s strategic plan of "Expanding Our Vision, Deepening Our Roots" by providing a glimpse of a rarely seen collection and offers a broader insight into Tucson and The University of Arizona’s early history.
With its focus on “The Roots of Literacy in the Ancient Near East,” the exhibit and a fall lecture series will illuminate some of the world’s first methods of writing. The displays of cuneiform tablets – primarily records of business transactions – are from half a dozen sites in southern Iraq. The tablets date from 2100-1800 BCE and are unquestionably the oldest archive of literary materials in the State of Arizona.
Other objects in Writings Out of Time include engraved cylinder and stamp seals from Iraq and Egypt, pieces of papyrus with hieroglyphic writing, and Imperial Roman-era Egyptian lamps signed by their makers. One piece, a unique stone slab with a bas-relief carving, comes from the palace of the great Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (668-627 BCE) in Nineveh, northern Iraq.
All these artifacts and more were purchased by – or donated to – the Arizona State Museum in the first half of the 20th century, by luminaries including the renowned collector and adventurer J. Edgar Banks, The University of Arizona founder Selim M. Franklin, and Arizona State Museum and Department of Anthropology founder, Byron Cummings. A special series of lectures focused on the theme “The Roots of Literacy in the Ancient Near East” will be held throughout the fall. Lecturers will include faculty from The University of Arizona and scholars from around the country.
Contacts:
Professor Beth Alpert Nakhai, Exhibit Curator
Arizona Center for Judaic Studies
The University of Arizona
520- 626-5762
bnakhai@email.arizona.edu
Bonnie Travers
Special Collections, University Libraries
The University of Arizona
520- 626-5599
traversb@u.library.arizona.edu
THE COLLECTORS (SELECTED)
Edgar James Banks (1866 - 1945) was an archaeologist who some consider an original model for the fictional figure of Indiana Jones. Banks bought hundreds of cuneiform tablets on the antiquities market in the closing days of the Ottoman Empire and resold them in small batches to museums, libraries, universities, and theological seminaries across the United States. After World War I, Banks travelled and lectured extensively, scattering his cuneiform tablets among purchasers wherever he went.
Selim M. Franklin (1859 - 1927) graduated from UC Berkeley Law School in 1883 and was elected to the Arizona Territory legislature in 1884. It was because of his work as an Arizona legislator that he is often regarded as the father of The University of Arizona. Among other things, he advocated for the donation of 40 acres of land, which became home to the first University buildings. Franklin practiced law in Arizona and appeared before the US Supreme Court.
Byron Cummings (1869 - 1954) was an early pioneer in the archaeology of Arizona and Utah, involved in many important discoveries in the American Southwest during the first half of the twentieth century. Over the course of his career, he was an explorer, archaeologist, Classics scholar, anthropologist, teacher, museum director, university administrator, and park commissioner. In 1915, Cummings came to The University of Arizona to create the Archaeology Department. He was appointed director of the Arizona State Museum and in 1928, was named The University of Arizona’s ninth president.
Elizabeth Crozer Campbell (1899-1971) was a founder of the Desert Branch of the Southwest Museum, Los Angeles. Helen Congdon d’Autremont (1889-1966) was the founder and first president of the Tucson chapter of the League of Women Voters, a founder of the Amerind Foundation and a tireless worker for social services, interracial housing and scholarships for students at UofA. Lily S. Place (19th-20th century, dates unknown) resided in Egypt and was a major donor to, and Honorary Fellow for Life of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Adela Cooley Van Horn (1876?-1971) was a graduate of University of Chicago, Phi Beta Kappa, who served in the Red Cross in Europe after World War I and traveled extensively around the world. The donations made by these women highlight the many important ways in which women have contributed to The University of Arizona.
Robert de Rustafjaell (1876-1943) was born Robert Fawcus-Smith. He was a British collector and author who worked in Egypt as a geologist and mining engineer. He excavated at Cyzicus on the Sea of Marmara, Greece, in 1901. In 1912, he discovered 17 papyrus scrolls in Upper Egypt. After World War I, de Rustafjaell moved to the United States, where he lived under the name Col. Prince Roman Orbeliani. Many of the ancient artifacts he collected were sold through Sotheby’s.
Points of Interest
The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, the University Libraries, the Arizona State Museum and the other contributing units are departments are committed to offering lectures, exhibits and events at no cost to the University community and to the public, and to working collaboratively with other departments, entities and organizations across campus and in the wider community. Our intention is to enhance the educational goals and intellectual curiosity of students, faculty, staff and the public at-large. With this exhibit, we have the opportunity to showcase the Arizona State Museum, a UofA treasure; to educate people about the roots of literacy, which is fundamental to our learning traditions; to illuminate the rich civilization of ancient Iraq and its neighbors; to highlight quintessential contributions made by people living some four millennia ago in a part of the world best known today for less auspicious reasons; to bring internationally renowned scholars to The University of Arizona; and, to bring honor to The University of Arizona through this extraordinary exhibition and lecture series.
Of particular interest is the way that the cuneiform tablets document the complex state, temple and private economy of Mesopotamia in the late 3rd-early 2nd millennia BCE and show that commerce provided the rationale for the development of literacy and written records. The ASM cuneiform tablets highlight trade in livestock, grains and other agricultural products, raw materials such as bitumen and copper, female slaves and more. They record exchanges among private and governmental trade partners, and they note temple offerings. They bring us to a time when complex writing systems were first developed, when scribes were first being trained in scribal academies, and when literacy was becoming valued as a human achievement and a cultural and economic tool. They highlight the cultural foundations of creative intellectual advances and the many ways in which the human imagination created – and reacted to – increasing social and political complexity. As The University of Arizona prepares its students for the 21st century of our era, it is exciting to look back to the 21st century BCE and remember that the origins of writing are found in the Middle East.
Other Online Resources
http://www.etana.org/
ETANA: Electronic Tools and Ancient Near Eastern Archives
http://www.asor.org/
Homepage for American Schools of Oriental Research, which is the professional society of North Americans and others excavating in the Middle East. ASOR is a co-sponsor of this exhibit.
http://www.asor.org/excavations/textpolicy.html
New policy on cuneiform tablets from Iraq, by the American Schools of Oriental Research.
http://www.asor.org/pubs/jcs/index.html
The Journal of Cuneiform Studies
http://cdli.ucla.edu/
The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative
http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/index1.htm
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10410
Archaeology Watch, a page of information and links, relating to endangered antiquities in Iraq and elsewhere, by the Archaeological Institute of America.
http://www.archaeological.org
The homepage for the Archaeological Institute of America. The Tucson chapter of the AIA is co-sponsoring three of the exhibit lectures.
http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Games/cuneiform.html
About cuneiform writing
Sponsors
Thanks is extended to the exhibit and lecture series sponsors: American Schools of Oriental Research, Archaeological Institute of America; Tucson Chapter; Arizona Center for Judaic Studies; Arizona State Museum; Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy; Center for Middle Eastern Studies; UA School of Anthropology; UA Department of Classics; UA Department of History; UA Department of Near Eastern Studies; UA Daniel F. Cracchiola; Law Library Near Eastern Studies Undergraduate Organization; Tucson Marriott University Park Hotel; William F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem; Friends of The University of Arizona Libraries; Special Collections at the University Libraries; and the University Libraries.
Thanks are also extended to the exhibit and lecture series steering committee: Beth Alpert Nakhai; Jeanne Davenport; Martha Castleberry; Alison Futrell; Mike Jacobs; Louise Greenfield; Donna Bright DeSorda; Bonnie Travers; Gabriela Lopez; and Savannah Knight.