A Cuneiform Forgery. A Miniature Obelisk with Assyrian Inscription in the Collection of the National Museum in Warsaw

Abstract

Toward the end of the 1980s, the National Museum in Warsaw acquired a small terracotta obelisk covered in a cuneiform inscription. The Neo-Assyrian imagery suggested that the artefact was from the mid-1st millennium BC, with that dating further narrowed by the content of the inscription, according to which the obelisk was part of the décor of the palace of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (669–627[?] BC). The partial burning of the terracotta seemed to confirm that dating. Ashurbanipal’s North Palace in Nineveh burned to the ground in 612 BC, evidence of which remained on most of the clay artefacts discovered in its ruins. Despite the accuracy of the cuneiform inscription, the artefact’s authenticity was dubious. Though the form of the obelisk was perfectly well-known in the Ancient East, miniature obelisks have not been noted in the archaeological material from the period. The article’s authors thus attempted to once again verify the object’s authenticity. To that end, they traced the life of Prof. Stanisław Kościałkowski (1881–1960), in whose legacy the artefact survived to this day, attempting to determine the place and time of the obelisk’s purchase. They also subjected the artefact to in-depth epigraphic and formal analysis, finding that the inscription was copied from Henry Rawlinson’s 1861 publication, and that the shape of the obelisk, though consistent with Ancient East tradition, bears distinct signs of Levantine and Egyptian influence. The doubts regarding the obelisk’s authenticity proved fully justified, its identity as a forgery confirmed.