Writing appeared in Sumer, in today's Iraq, around 3200 BCE. The earliest clay tablets mostly record things like grain, beer and sheep. Stories and laws came later.
Truth label: Established. Strong evidence and broad agreement among experts.
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From tokens to marks
Before writing, people tracked goods with small clay tokens. Pressing tokens into clay may have led to drawing signs instead.
Cuneiform
Scribes pressed a cut reed into wet clay, leaving wedge-shaped marks. It was used for over 3,000 years.
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- Who could write. Scribes trained for years in schools called 'tablet houses'. Most people never learned.
- Later uses. In time, cuneiform carried letters, medicine, astronomy and the Epic of Gilgamesh.
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What did most of the earliest writing record?
Goods and trade. Early tablets were mostly accounting records.
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