Proto-Sumerian Pictographic Terracotta Tablet. Uruk III, circa 3200-3000 B.C. Lentoid in section with design to one face in three registers: left, large panel with impressed grid, square and spray; right, two smaller panels with hatching and geometric forms. Cf. Salvatore Monaco, Archaic Cuneiform Tablets from Private Collections, CUSAS 31, for other comparable tablets. 26.2 grams, 55 mm (2 1/8 in.). From an important collection formed before 1988. Examined by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert FBA (1926-2011), historian, archaeologist, and specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology, in the late 1980s and 1990s. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12543-231889.