Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Collection
Title
Cuneiform Tablet Collection
Date(s)
- 50 BCE 2003 CE, 1987, 2002-2003 (Creation)
Extent
- 2.54 linear feet ([1 Hollinger Box, Small; 2 oversize boxes]
Name of creator
Biographical history
Banks was an antiquities enthusiast and entrepreneurial roving archaeologist in the closing days of the Ottoman Empire, who has been held up as an original for the fictional composite figure of Indiana Jones. Starting from his position as American consul in Baghdad in 1898, Banks bought hundreds of cuneiform tablets on the market in the closing days of the Ottoman Empire and re-sold them in small batches to museums, libraries, universities, and theological seminaries, several in Utah and the American Southwest and across the United States. These tablets had been dug up by locals at sites like Telloh and the many other tells of central Mesopotamia. Banks purchased many more cuneiform inscriptions from a dealer in Istanbul. The Ottoman government did not regulate the trade in such minor antiquities.
Though he had been funded for an expedition to the site of Ur, Banks was foiled by the Ottoman administration, who would not permit digs at Babylon or Tell Ibrahim, or other prominent sites. In 1903 it was decided that his excavations were to be at Bismya, the site of ancient Adab, in Iraq. His 1912 publication about his excavations at Bismya/Bismaya (Adab), the Sumerian city now in Iraq, contains some lively accounts of his struggles with the Ottoman bureaucracy (see link below).
In 1909 Banks became a professor of Oriental languages and archaeology at the University of Toledo. After World War I, Banks travelled and lectured extensively, scattering his cuneiform tablets among purchasers wherever he went. Tablets Banks sold to Charles W. Ames are now in the Science Museum at the University of Minnesota and many other private and public sites in the U.S.
Banks is credited with the sale of an ancient cuneiform tablet of great mathematical importance to the New York publisher George Arthur Plimpton. The artifact, reportedly purchased for $10, was housed in Plimpton's private collection before being donated to Columbia University upon Plimpton's death. The artifact, now famously known as Plimpton 322 (denoting that it is the 322nd item in the catalog), has provided great insight into the Babylonian era math. Although debate over how to interpret this artifact continues, the artifact is usually taken to display knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem, long before the birth of Pythagoras himself.
Edgar Banks also started two movie companies, and climbed Mount Ararat in a search for Noah's Ark. Cecil B. DeMille apparently invited Banks to become a consultant on bible epics in 1921.
Banks was an active lecturer and author. It was during such a lecturing trip in 1921 that he discovered Eustis, Florida, and decided to retire there.
He died in Eustis in 1945 at the age of 79.
The Eustis Historical Museum features one room with exhibits about Banks.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
This collection consists of six Sumerian Cuneiform Tablets, a translation by Edgar J. Banks, research and manuscript material. Five of the tablets are approximately 1.5" x 1.5" in size. The tablets come from Ancient Mesopotamia, a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris-Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent, corresponding to most of modern day Iraq, Kuwait, the eastern parts of Syria, and Southwestern Turkey. The translation found with the tablets provides only general information about each tablet: date, place found, and general description. The translations state that three of the tablets are records of receipt for temple offerings, one a sealed temple record and one contract or business document.
South Dakota State College President Willis E. Johnson, who was president of South Dakota State College from 1919 to 1923, purchased the tablets from Edgar James Banks in 1923 for $26.00.
The sixth tablet is 4 inches wide x 6.5 inches long. This tablet was transferred to the archives from the South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum. A label affixed to the tablet reads: Egyptian Prescription given me by Daphne Serles and had belonged to Dr. Earl Serles. This script was misidentified as Egyptian hieroglyphics but is indeed Sumerian Cuneiform. This tablet has no transcription.
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
This collection is open to researchers without restrictions. The materials in the Archives do not circulate and may be used in-house only.
Researchers conducting extensive research are asked to make an advance appointment to access archival material. Please call or e-mail prior to visiting the collection and indicate as much detail as possible about a particular topic and intended use.
South Dakota State University supports access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections. Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted as a result of their fragile condition or by contractual agreements with donors.
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Researchers conducting extensive research are asked to make an advance appointment to access archival material. Please call or e-mail prior to visiting the collection and indicate as much detail as possible about a particular topic and intended use.
South Dakota State University supports access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections. Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted as a result of their fragile condition or by contractual agreements with donors.
Languages of the material
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
Related descriptions
Notes element
General note
General note
Online Content
The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative ( CDLI ) at the University of California, Los Angeles added descriptions of the tablets on their Found Texts website. Tablets 1 and 2 are from the Puzriš-Dagan (mod. Drehem) provenience and dated to the Ur III (ca. 2100-2000BC) period. Tablets 5 and 4 are from the Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) provenience and dated to the Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC) period. The provenience of Tablet 5 is uncertain and is dated to the Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC) period. The CDLI did not analyze Tablet 6.
Specialized notes
Alternative identifier(s)
ID
ID
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Sources used
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Banks, Edgar James, 1866-1945 (Subject)