Kish tablet

{{Short description|Sumerian proto-writing (Late Uruk period)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox archaeological culture

|name = Kish tablet

|map = Tableta con trillo.png

|mapcaption = Limestone tablet from Kish (Sumer) with pictographic writing, Late Uruk period{{snd}}Ashmolean Museum

|region = Iraq

|period = Late Uruk period ({{circa|3500–2900 BC|lk=no}})

|dates = After 3500 BC

|followedby =

}}

The Kish tablet is a limestone tablet found at the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Kish in modern Tell al-Uhaymir, Babylon Governorate, Iraq. A plaster cast of the tablet is in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum, while the original is housed at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.[https://archive.org/download/fieldmuseumoxfor28fiel/fieldmuseumoxfor28fiel.pdf]Henry Field, "The Field Museum-Oxford University Expedition to Kish, Mesopotamia, 1923–1929", Anthropology Leaflet, no. 28, 1929.Langdon, Stephen, "Excavations at Kish: The Herbert Weld (for the University of Oxford) and Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago) Expedition to Mesopotamia. Vol. 1", P. Geuthner, 1924. It should not be confused with the Scheil dynastic tablet, which contains part of the Sumerian King List and is also sometimes called the Kish tablet.{{cite journal |last=Scheil |first=Vincent |author-link=Vincent Scheil |title=Les plus anciennes dynasties connues de Sumer-Accad |journal=Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres |year=1911 |volume=55 |issue=8 |pages=606–620 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1911_num_55_8_72913 |lang=fr}}

The signs on the Kish tablet, possibly related to proto-cuneiform, are purely pictographic, and have not been deciphered or demonstrated to correspond to any currently known human language. It has been dated to the Late Uruk period ({{circa|3500–2900 BC}}).Hayes, John L., 1990 A Manual of Sumerian Grammar and Texts, Undena Publications{{citation |last1=Woods |first1=Christopher |editor1-first=Christopher |editor1-last=Woods |title=Visible language. Inventions of writing in the ancient Middle East and beyond |chapter-url=https://isac.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/shared/docs/oimp32.pdf |series=Oriental Institute Museum Publications |volume=32 |year=2010 |publisher=University of Chicago |location=Chicago |isbn=978-1-885923-76-9 |chapter=The earliest Mesopotamian writing |pages=33–50 }}