Clay Tablets
Clay tablets were used in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC. The calamus, an instrument in the form of a triangle, was used to make characters in moist clay. The tablets were fired to dry them out. At Nineveh, 22,000 tablets were found, dating from the 7th century BC; this was the archive and library of the kings of Assyria, who had workshops of copyists and conservationists at their disposal. This presupposes a degree of organization with respect to books, consideration given to conservation, classification, etc. Tablets were used right up until the 19th century in various parts of the world, including Germany, Chile, and the Saharan Desert.
Read more about this topic: History Of Books
Famous quotes containing the words clay tablets, clay and/or tablets:
“Archaeologists have uncovered six-thousand-year-old clay tablets from southern Babylonia that describe in great detail how the adults of that community found the younger generation to be insolent and disobedient.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“As ye of clay were cast by kind,
So shall ye waste to dust.”
—Thomas Vaux, 2d Baron Vaux Of Harrowden (1510–1566)
“For Hades is mighty in calling men to account below the earth, and with a mind that records in tablets he surveys all things.”
—Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.)