带有印痕的原始楔形文字碑：大麦分布的行政记录，带有男性人物、猎狗和野猪的圆柱形印痕 - 美国大都会艺术博物馆展品查阅

品名（中）	带有印痕的原始楔形文字碑：大麦分布的行政记录，带有男性人物、猎狗和野猪的圆柱形印痕
品名（英）	Proto-Cuneiform tablet with seal impressions: administrative account of barley distribution with cylinder seal impression of a male figure, hunting dogs, and boars
入馆年号	1988年，1988.433.1
策展部门	古代近东艺术（Ancient Near Eastern Art）
创作者
创作年份	公元前 3100 - 公元前 2900
创作地区
分类
尺寸	2 1/8 × 2 3/8 × 1 5/8 英寸 (5.4 × 6 × 4.1 厘米)
介绍（中）	在美索不达米亚南部古代文明留下的众多遗产中，文字的发明至关重要。公元前四千年末，该地区发展出书面语言，最初是象形文字，后来演变成被称为楔形文字的抽象形式。与这块石碑上的象形文字一样，这些象形文字被称为原始楔形文字，是用尖头工具在粘土中绘制的。象形文字旁边的圆形印痕代表数字符号。楔形文字是用楔形尖端的芦苇笔或手写笔压在泥板上写的。粘土，当干燥到某种硬化状态时，形成了一个很好的书写表面，当烧制时，上面写的记录就变成了永久性的早期写作主要用作记录和存储经济信息的手段。这块石碑很可能记录了由一个大寺庙分布的谷物，尽管早期文本中没有动词，这使得它们很难被确定地解释。除了出现在这块石碑上的文字外，圆柱印章的图像也记录了信息，在刻下之前，圆柱印章没有完全印在石碑的两面和边缘。这只海豹显然没有活下来。印章上的印记描绘了一个男性形象，用皮带牵着两只狗，在芦苇荡里狩猎或放牧野猪。他就是所谓的牧师王，一个可以通过他的着装和姿势来识别的男性形象。在这里，他扮演了一个保护羊群免受野生捕食者袭击的好牧羊人改编自《古代近东艺术：教育工作者的资源》（2010）
介绍（英）	Of the many legacies left by the ancient civilizations of southern Mesopotamia, the invention of writing is paramount. At the end of the fourth millennium B.C., written language developed in the region, first as pictographs and then evolving into abstract forms called cuneiform. The pictographs, like the ones on this tablet, are called proto-cuneiform and were drawn in the clay with a pointed implement. Circular impressions alongside the pictographs represented numerical symbols. Cuneiform (meaning wedge-shaped) script was written by pressing a reed pen or stylus with a wedge-shaped tip into a clay tablet. Clay, when dried to a somewhat hardened state, made a fine surface for writing, and when fired the records written on it became permanent. Early writing was used primarily as a means of recording and storing economic information. This tablet most likely documents grain distributed by a large temple, although the absence of verbs in early texts makes them difficult to interpret with certainty. In addition to the writing that appears on this tablet, the imagery of the cylinder seal, which was incompletely impressed on both faces and the edges of the tablet before it was inscribed, also records information. This seal apparently has not survived. The seal impression depicts a male figure guiding two dogs on a leash and hunting or herding boars in a reed marsh. He is the so-called priest-king, a male figure who can be identified by his dress and pose. Here he appears in his role as the good shepherd who protects flocks from wild predators. Adapted from, Art of the Ancient Near East: A Resource for Educators (2010)