Clay tablet (document claiming a debt)

The gradual advance of Aramaic as the written and spoken language of the ancient Near East can be seen on this clay tablet. Until the Neo-Assyrian period, in the middle of the first millennium BC, most people were still familiar with cuneiform script. But by the time of the Persian period (539-332 BC), many were no longer able to read it. The scribe therefore supplied the clay tablets with a brief caption in Aramaic. It is a kind of summary − in this case, however, upside-down! The cuneiform text is a document claiming a debt of 15 pieces of silver owed by one Bel-Iddina, the son of Nabu-etir-napsjati.