Cuneiform Collections

Since their discovery some 150 years ago cuneiform tablets have been discovered in both controlled and un-controlled excavations, and have been dispersed across the globe. Prior to the 1930's cuneiform tablets excavated in the Ancient Near East could be easily removed from the countries of origin as objects for study, collection, or sale, adding to the huge numbers of tablets in public and private collections in many countries.

In an attempt to virtually reassemble the scattered textual heritage of the Ancient Near East, we list here the collections of cuneiform tablets know to us.

note that this page is still under construction

• Collections of more than 10,000 tablets

• Collections of more than 1000 tablets

• Collections of 100 to 1000 tablets

• Collections of less than 100 tablets

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK

Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire de Strasbourg, France

British Museum, London, UK

Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

Columbia University Libraries, New York, New York, USA

Cornell University—Kroch Library, Ithaca, New York, USA

Cornell University—Near Eastern Studies, Ithaca, New York, USA

Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA

Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russian Federation

Horn Museum, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, USA

Institut Catholique de Paris, France

Iraq Museum, Baghdad, Iraq

Israel Museum, Jerusalem

John Rylands Library, Manchester

Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Musée du Louvre, Paris, France

Musées d’art et d’histoire, Geneva, Switzerland

Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels, Belgium

Museo di Antichità, Turin, Italy

Museu de Montserrat, Barcelona, Spain

National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

New York Public Library, New York, New York, USA

Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Penn Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose, California, USA

Schøyen Collection, Oslo

Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (Previously Semitic Museum)

Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA

Syrian National Museums

USC Archaeological Research Collection, Los Angeles, California, USA

Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

World Museum, Liverpool, UK

See also 100 Most Important Cuneiform Objects