Proto-Elamite: Writing and Society in Early Iran

Author:   Kathryn Kelley (Uppsala University)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
ISBN:  

9781009614528


Pages:   122
Publication Date:   06 August 2026
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Proto-Elamite: Writing and Society in Early Iran


Overview

Proto-Elamite is one of the world's earliest scripts and it remains only very partly deciphered. Excavations have uncovered c. 1,700 clay tablets from Iran, dating c. 3300–2900 BCE. The tablets use a complex system involving hundreds of symbols to count commodities, people, and institutions. Despite holding a privileged place in the history of writing, the study of proto-Elamite falls outside modern disciplinary boundaries and has received very limited scholarly attention since its discovery over a century ago. Nonetheless, a handful of scholars have shown that there is much we can learn about proto-Elamite and the people who used it, especially by taking interdisciplinary approaches. The ongoing decipherment project combines mathematics, a range of comparative studies, and a sustained effort to digitize the corpus and apply new tools from computer science.

Full Product Details

Author:   Kathryn Kelley (Uppsala University)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Weight:   0.318kg
ISBN:  

9781009614528


ISBN 10:   1009614525
Pages:   122
Publication Date:   06 August 2026
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. The Paths to Writing in Iran; 3. The Proto-Elamite World; 4. Approaches to Decipherment; 5. The System of Signs; 6. Proto-Elamite Economies and Their Participants; 7. Writing as Social Practice; 8. The Afterlife of Proto-Elamite.

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