# Robert D. Biggs · Person

> Oriental Institute Assyriologist who published the Abu Salabikh tablets and the archaic Kesh Temple Hymn. In The unread cuneiform: half a million tablets…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/people/FIG0DEDNFSKFEYQ/robert-d-biggs  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform)[People](https://mysteriesdept.com/people)Robert D. Biggs

Person · in 1 mystery

# Robert D. Biggs

Oriental Institute Assyriologist who published the Abu Salabikh tablets and the archaic Kesh Temple Hymn. **Born 1934.**

[The unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform)[1 event][2 sources]

Robert D. Biggs is american Assyriologist (born 1934) at the Oriental Institute, Chicago; epigrapher of the 1963 and 1965 Abu Salabikh excavations, editor of Inscriptions from Tell Abu Salabikh (1974) and of the Early Dynastic Kesh Temple Hymn (1971) (born 1934), and appears in the record of unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian as oriental Institute Assyriologist who published the Abu Salabikh tablets and the archaic Kesh Temple Hymn.

One event on the site involves Biggs: The Oriental Institute excavations at Abu Salabikh recover about 500 Early Dynastic tablets, including the first large group of Early Dynastic literature (1963).

One question rest in part on what Biggs did or said, among them “Why do the Early Dynastic literary texts from Fara and Abu Salabikh resist reading, and can they be read without later duplicates?”, which stands open: 3 answers, none ahead.

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## In the mysteries

**The unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian**

Oriental Institute Assyriologist who published the Abu Salabikh tablets and the archaic Kesh Temple Hymn. · 1 event

[The mystery ](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform)

[Why do the Early Dynastic literary texts from Fara and Abu Salabikh resist reading, and can they be read without later duplicates?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT3AM4NHK/why-do-the-early-dynastic-literary-texts-from-fara-and-abu)Open: 3 answers, none ahead

## What Robert D. Biggs did 1

1963[The Oriental Institute excavations at Abu Salabikh recover about 500 Early Dynastic tablets, including the first large group of Early Dynastic literature](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/events/EVT0DEDP5ABDJYD/the-oriental-institute-excavations-at-abu-salabikh-recover)

at [Tell Abu Salabikh, Iraq](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/places/PLC0DEDMZXFEW7W/tell-abu-salabikh-iraq)

## Places 1

[Tell Abu Salabikh, Iraq](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform/places/PLC0DEDMZXFEW7W/tell-abu-salabikh-iraq)

site

PLC

## Sources 2

[An Archaic Sumerian Version of the Kesh Temple Hymn from Tell Abū Ṣalābīkh](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDJ4RSV9CP/an-archaic-sumerian-version-of-the-kesh-temple-hymn-from)

SRC

[The tablets from Abu Salabikh and their provenance](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDJ6QF8S1J/the-tablets-from-abu-salabikh-and-their-provenance)

SRC

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). Robert D. Biggs [Person FIG0DEDNFSKFEYQ]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/FIG0DEDNFSKFEYQ
```

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Key

**FIG** 0DEDNFSKFEYQ

Record

Person

Born

1934

Occupation

Assyriologist, epigrapher

Identity

American Assyriologist (born 1934) at the Oriental Institute, Chicago; epigrapher of the 1963 and 1965 Abu Salabikh excavations, editor of Inscriptions from Tell Abu Salabikh (1974) and of the Early Dynastic Kesh Temple Hymn (1971)

In

[Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/unread-cuneiform)

Version

1

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