Gone West : Revisiting the Cuneiform Tablet of Thunder-Rolling-Down-the-Mountain
Rattenborg, Rune LU
(2023)
In Cuneiform Digital Library Notes
2023(1).
- Abstract
- For all its physical modesty, a small administrative cuneiform tablet currently in the collections of the West Point Museum, part of the U.S. Army Center of Military History and located at the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY, has become quite the celebrity in numerous online fora and blog posts, being presented as evidence of cultural relations between the Old World and the New prior to Columbus’ discovery of America in 1492. Given the relative obscurity of past specialist editions of this artefact and the popular misconceptions surrounding its supposed provenance history and derived meaning, this note offers a new edition of the tablet itself, a review of its archaeological origin as far as it can be traced, and a... (More)
- For all its physical modesty, a small administrative cuneiform tablet currently in the collections of the West Point Museum, part of the U.S. Army Center of Military History and located at the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY, has become quite the celebrity in numerous online fora and blog posts, being presented as evidence of cultural relations between the Old World and the New prior to Columbus’ discovery of America in 1492. Given the relative obscurity of past specialist editions of this artefact and the popular misconceptions surrounding its supposed provenance history and derived meaning, this note offers a new edition of the tablet itself, a review of its archaeological origin as far as it can be traced, and a discussion of the circumstances that led to its inclusion in the holdings of the West Point Museum. Incidentally, it also serves to clarify the otherwise opaque reasons behind the supposed appearance of a cuneiform tablet from Tall Daraiyhim (or Drehem), ancient Puzriš-Dagan on the global antiquities market many years before ilicit digging at the site was first reported.1 (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1da68e2a-1d31-4644-8d1b-872775203a24
- author
- Rattenborg, Rune
LU
- publishing date
- 2023-04-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- in
- Cuneiform Digital Library Notes
- volume
- 2023
- issue
- 1
- project
- Skriftlandskap (GLoW): Storskalig analys av kilskriftskorpusen (ca. 3400 fvt till 100 vt)
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- id
- 1da68e2a-1d31-4644-8d1b-872775203a24
- alternative location
- https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/articles/cdln/2023-1
- date added to LUP
- 2025-04-14 11:31:10
- date last changed
- 2025-04-24 14:50:47
@article{1da68e2a-1d31-4644-8d1b-872775203a24,
abstract = {{For all its physical modesty, a small administrative cuneiform tablet currently in the collections of the West Point Museum, part of the U.S. Army Center of Military History and located at the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY, has become quite the celebrity in numerous online fora and blog posts, being presented as evidence of cultural relations between the Old World and the New prior to Columbus’ discovery of America in 1492. Given the relative obscurity of past specialist editions of this artefact and the popular misconceptions surrounding its supposed provenance history and derived meaning, this note offers a new edition of the tablet itself, a review of its archaeological origin as far as it can be traced, and a discussion of the circumstances that led to its inclusion in the holdings of the West Point Museum. Incidentally, it also serves to clarify the otherwise opaque reasons behind the supposed appearance of a cuneiform tablet from Tall Daraiyhim (or Drehem), ancient Puzriš-Dagan on the global antiquities market many years before ilicit digging at the site was first reported.1}},
author = {{Rattenborg, Rune}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{04}},
number = {{1}},
series = {{Cuneiform Digital Library Notes}},
title = {{Gone West : Revisiting the Cuneiform Tablet of Thunder-Rolling-Down-the-Mountain}},
url = {{https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/articles/cdln/2023-1}},
volume = {{2023}},
year = {{2023}},
}