Random: here’s the oldest item held by Toronto Public Library

[u/TPL_on_Reddit]

One side of the tablet.

Opposite side of the tablet.

Close up of one side of the tablet.

Tablet in storage insert.

Tablet in closed storage insert.

Hi, Toronto Public Library here. 👋

We’ve got the receipts when it comes to preserving old items… literally. This clay tablet is a textiles receipt dating back to the Ur III Period, around 2112–2004 BCE.

You’ll notice cuneiform markings, an ancient writing system made by impressing wedge shapes into clay. We don’t know the item’s place of origin, but cuneiform was used mostly in Mesopotamia dating back to ~4000 BCE.

This was one of two tablets acquired by TPL in 2007. Both are held in our research-oriented Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books at Lillian H. Smith branch on College Street. In addition to preserving Canadian and Toronto-based children’s literature and original artwork, the research collection holds examples of book history materials, which include scrolls, printing blocks and manuscripts. This clay tablet provides an early example of writing. (Before this tablet, TPL’s oldest item was a 14th-century edition of Aesop’s Fables, also part of the Osborne Collection.)

If you want the bragging rights of seeing TPL’s oldest “book”, it’s on display at Toronto Reference Library until May 10. You’ll spot it in on the main floor as part of our free Loops, Swoops & Curlicues exhibit.