(CNN) – Archaeologists have discovered a small 3,500-year-old tablet inscribed in cuneiform writing during excavations at a site in Turkey that could 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 writing recorded Sumerian, Akkadian and other languages from Mesopotamia, the region where the world's first known civilization developed in what is now Iraq. Highly educated scribes created the distinctive wedge-shaped characters using reeds on clay tablets.
The newly found tablet, dating back to the 15th century BC, appears to have served as an itemized receipt. Written in Akkadian cuneiform, the ancient inscription describes the purchase of a large quantity of furniture.
“We believe that this tablet, which weighs 28 grams, will provide a new perspective to understand the economic structure and state system of the Late Bronze Age,” said Mehmet Ersoy, Turkey’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, in a statement.
The tablet measures just 4.2 by 3.5 centimeters and is 1.6 centimeters thick. Researchers found the artifact outside the gate of the ancient city of Alalakh, now known as the Tell Atchana mound and archaeological site.
But perhaps most surprising is that the tiny tablet was found in July during restoration work following devastating earthquakes in the region. In the aftermath of the natural disaster, archaeology became a form of recovery and healing for the community, said excavation director Dr Murat Akar.
British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley first excavated the city of Alalakh in the 1930s. He discovered an archive of cuneiform tablets in a fortress adjacent to the gate, said Dr. Jacob Lauinger, an associate professor of Assyriology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
“The new tablet either comes from that same archive of tablets or from another unexcavated archive in the fortress, and it reached the gate at some point,” Lauinger said.
Lauinger and Zeynep Türker, a doctoral student in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University, are currently translating and studying the tablet with Akar, who is an associate professor in the Department of Archaeology at Mustafa Kemal University in Turkey.
The findings will be published in a peer-reviewed study led by Türker, but for now, his translation of the tablet reveals the purchase of some 200 or more wooden tables, chairs and stools. Although other tablets from Alalakh mention furniture production at the site, nothing has reached the scale of those listed on the newly discovered tablet, Lauinger said.
The team is studying the tablet's connections to other tablets unearthed by Woolley, as well as to cuneiform tablets mentioning furniture from other Late Bronze Age sites.
Administrative texts, such as the one found at Alalakh, recorded the number of raw materials and finished products that palace workers created, distributed and used, he said.
“They therefore provide an incredible insight into the ancient society and economy of Alalakh. We are literally reading the accounts of an ancient accountant from almost 3,500 years ago!” Lauinger said in an email.
But the team is also trying to figure out how the tablet fits into the broader context of the society that lived in the ancient city at the time. Researchers believe the furniture was built at roughly the same time, rather than in batches of small orders that accumulated over time. Now, the team wants to explore the different historical scenarios that would have required so much furniture.
“Was it for some special occasion in Alalakh, like a royal wedding?” Lauinger said. “Could it have been for a religious festival? Did Alalakh produce furniture for export? Hopefully we can begin to rule out some of these scenarios and make the case for others as more likely.”
After Woolley’s excavations concluded in the late 1940s, the site was left to deteriorate for nearly a century and Tell Atchana was reclaimed by nature, Akar said. The site was in a fragile, nearly unrecognizable state after being covered by a thick tangle of a deep-rooted wild plant called Syrian mesquite when Akar and his colleagues began transforming it in 2012.
In 2019, the team undertook the arduous task of protecting, reinforcing and preserving the adobe architecture of the ancient city.
Then, in February 2023, several earthquakes occurred along a fault line located one kilometer from Tell Atchana. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck 11 towns in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6, 2023, followed by a magnitude 7.5 quake nine hours later. A third magnitude 6.3 quake and 40,000 aftershocks occurred 14 days later. Tens of thousands of lives were lost.
Sections of the site's new excavation areas collapsed, and large-scale exhibits from Woolley's research were severely damaged. However, the archaeological research complex the team used remained standing and became a humanitarian support center in the first months after the earthquakes, according to a July study co-authored by Akar and his colleagues and published in the academic journal Journal of field archaeology.
Within a few months, restoration and excavation work resumed at the site to provide an environment for students traumatized by the impacts of the earthquake, he said. To compensate for the damage caused by the quakes, the local community made about 4,500 mud bricks during the 2023 season.
“We used archaeology as a means of recovery and healing,” Akar said. “Continuing work at the site after the earthquake was also important as it provided income for the local community and a way to preserve their own cultural heritage.”
It was during new excavations at Tell Atchana that the tablet was found. As excavations continue, the research team is curious to see if similar tablets turn up in a part of the fortress that Woolley never excavated, Lauinger said.
“Some archaeologists go their entire careers without finding a cuneiform tablet, so this is certainly a rare and exciting find,” Lauinger said.
