We’re exploring themes from the current Getty Villa exhibition "Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins," and today’s theme is cuneiform!⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ This stone stele, known as the Cailloux Michaux (Michaux Stone), has a special place in the modern decipherment of the cuneiform script. ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ A botanist brought the stone to Paris in 1786 from Baghdad. It was the first significant cuneiform monument seen in Europe. At the time, its inscription could not be read and people invented fanciful ideas about what it might say. ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Nearly a century later, when Babylonian cuneiform was deciphered, scholars could at last decode the inscription. ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ It turns out that this is a type of stele called a kudurru, which records a gift of land or tax privilege, often from the king to members of his family. In this case, a 12th-century BC man named Nirahnasir gave a gift of land to his daughter Dur-Sharrukin-aia'itu as a wedding present. ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Probably deposited in a temple, this property deed was placed under the p...