He says it was four sheep. It was six.

We shook on it at the well. Since then his memory has gotten worse and his flock has gotten bigger. — Shepherd, about 3200 BC

Writing was invented by accountants. The oldest tablets from Uruk don't have a poem or a prayer on them, just tallies of grain, beer and livestock. The stories came along centuries later. One of the first names anybody can read belongs to a man called Kushim, on a tablet counting barley over 37 months. That's about all we know about him. Five thousand years, and he's remembered for barley. Keep good records.

Noted: the clay receipts are still readable. The paper one from last month's groceries may already be blank.

The full file

Before the tablets, there were tokens. Accountants kept little clay shapes, one shape for each kind of goods, sealed them inside clay envelopes, and pressed each one into the outside so you could see what was in there without breaking it open. Sooner or later somebody noticed the marks on the outside were enough. The envelope flattened into a tablet, and the marks became writing.

It lasted. Cuneiform was written for more than 3,000 years, and the last tablets anybody can date are from the late first century AD.

Reading it again took some proving. In 1857 a society in London sent the same inscription to four scholars, had them translate it separately and send their work back sealed. When the envelopes were opened, the translations largely agreed. It could be read.

Relates to No. 00220.