Four 4,000-Year-Old Tablets Make Up the Oldest Item in the University of Alberta’s Library Collection

From The Gateway (Student Newspaper at U. of Alberta);

Three years ago, the University of Alberta acquired the first of four ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets, which together form the oldest items in the university’s entire library collection.

The tablets are kept in the university’s Bruce Peel Special Collections, located in the basement of Rutherford South. Named after Bruce Braden Peel, Chief Librarian of the University of Alberta from 1955 to 1982, the collection hosts over 100,000 rare books as well as an assembly of artifacts, including four Mesopotamian Cuneiform tablets ranging from 4,000 to 5,000 years old.

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Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Libraries, News