A School Tablet in the Shape of a Five-Sided Prism in Adana Museum

Abstract In 2002 a 5-sided prism with a handle inscribed with cuneiform was acquired by Adana Museum by means of confiscation, but it is thought to be from Osmaniye-Toprakkale in the Adana province of south-central Turkey. The prism has a grey slip and a handle-like portion on its top with a hole through it, whereby it could have been used as an amulet or at least somehow displayed. The text on the prism consists of the first 54 lines of a basic cuneiform exercise for students, known as “Syllable Alphabet A”. This prism school-tablet, which is written in Babylonian script, is probably to be dated to the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, although a date later in the 2nd millennium cannot be excluded. The article presents the object and its text, considers its possible use-function, as well as raising the question of possible connections with Old Babylonian traders’ networks, such as evidenced at Tilmen Höyük on the other side of the Amanus mountains.