Early writing tablet recording the allocation of beer
Probably from southern Iraq, Late Prehistoric
period, 3100-3000 BC
This clay tablet has an early example of
writing, in the form of pictographs drawn in clay with a sharp
instrument. In this case they record the allocation of
beer.
The symbol for beer, an upright jar with pointed base, appears
three times on the tablet. Beer was the most popular drink in
Mesopotamia and was issued as rations to workers.
Alongside the pictographs are five different shaped impressions,
representing numerical symbols. Over time these signs became more
abstract and wedge-like, or 'cuneiform'.
The earliest tablets with written inscriptions represent the
work of administrators, perhaps of large temple institutions,
recording the allocation of rations or the movement and storage of
goods.
Writing, the recording of a spoken language, emerged from
earlier recording systems at the end of the fourth millennium. The
first written language in Mesopotamia is called Sumerian. Most of
the early tablets come from the site of Uruk, in southern
Mesopotamia, and it may have been here that this form of writing
was invented.
The signs are grouped into boxes and, at this early date, are
usually read from top to bottom and right to left. One sign, in the
bottom row on the left, shows a bowl tipped towards a schematic
human head. This is the sign for 'to eat'.
The earliest writing
The earliest evidence for writing in Mesopotamia was discovered
in Eanna, though it is difficult to date precisely. The clay
tablets it was found on had been used as packing for
foundations of later buildings.
