It is made of deep black diorite, and incised in Akkadian language cuneiform in horizontal rows on all sides. The cuneiform is written within 1519 boxes, as lined registers. The material was imported into Sumeria from Magan – today the area covered by the United Arab Emirates and Oman,[3] and on clay tablets Manishtushu recorded: "From mountains beyond the 'lower sea' (Persian Gulf), he took black stones; he loaded [them] on boats and docked [them] on the quay at Akkad.