The Blau monuments

Not kept here. This copy isn't ours to show. See it where it's published.

Two small dark-stone objects, an obelisk 18 cm long and a plaque 15.9 cm long, carved with reliefs of a bearded figure in a net skirt and kneeling workers, and inscribed with archaic signs recording a land transaction of 5 bur (about 30 hectares). Bought near Uruk in 1886 and once suspected as forgeries; dated by different scholars to c. 3100 or c. 2700 BC. They sit on the boundary between proto-cuneiform and readable Early Dynastic Sumerian.

British Museum, London. Oriental Institute, University of Chicago; free PDF, copyright retained

Copies 1

Oip 104 edition and plates (pdf)oi.uchicago.edu · Oriental Institute, University of Chicago; free PDF, copyright retainedPrimary source: Earliest Land Tenure Systems in the Near East: Ancient Kudurrus (OIP 104)1 step from the original

Where it's published

Where it is kept

British Museum, London · Museum

Sources 2

Cite it

Mysteries Department. (2026). The Blau monuments [Artifact ART0DEDRGKQVTNK]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ART0DEDRGKQVTNK

@misc{mysteriesdept_art0dedrgkqvtnk,
  title     = {The Blau monuments},
  author    = {{Mysteries Department}},
  year      = {2026},
  note      = {Artifact, catalog key ART0DEDRGKQVTNK},
  url       = {https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ART0DEDRGKQVTNK}
}