The 'Scribe of Akkad' is perhaps one of the most unique finds of the 19th century. This panel taken from an excavation in 1843 went unnoticed until 1895 when it was part of a display at the Oriental Institute of Oxford. At the time Jiles Montague noted 'the mysterious right triangular box and the rounded larger box seem to have some function in the duties of the scribe.' Later investigators forgot the panel with the exception of Chesley Boxford III who gave the panel the name 'The Scribe of Akkad' in a tourist brochure published in 1923. Cuneiform tablets describing life in ancient Sumer at the end of the Third Millennium B.C. give little help. Somehow the triangular shaped smaller boxes were touched in a way that the soft clay tablets were stamped with the cuneiform syllabaries. The tablets were then dried in the sun or baked and then stored in the Royal Library. A panel thought to have been originally in place to the right of the panel shows wavy lines tangled on the floor of the scribe's quarters leading into the wall where they terminate. Oxford has renewed interest in identifying the mysterious boxes and the Oriental Institute has more information on the search. See their web site at: