Noting Down

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Archeologists in Turkey recently discovered a 3,500-year-old clay tablet that underscored one of humanity’s defining aspects: Keeping records.

Restoration work in the ancient site of Alalakh in southern Turkey uncovered the small artifact – measuring 1.6 by 0.6 inches – which turned out to be a detailed record of a furniture purchase.

Researchers said the document, dating from the 15th century BCE, listed a large procurement of wooden tables, chairs and stools.

They haven’t determined who wrote the tablet or who made the purchase, but explained that it was written in Akkadian cuneiform, a logo-syllabic script used extensively across the ancient Middle East.

Akkadian is an extinct East Semitic language related to Arabic and Hebrew noted in use from the third millennium BCE to the first century CE.

Cuneiform was one of the earliest writing systems, being invented by the Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia – now modern-day Iraq, and characterized by its wedge-shaped impressions cut into moist clay with a reed stylus, Smithsonian Magazine noted.

Ancient cuneiform receipts and administrative documents are not new: New York’s Met Museum holds an extensive collection of these artifacts, including a receipt for oxen and sheep, and a tablet used to train scribes to write cuneiform.

Visitors at London’s British Museum can also amuse themselves with a customer complaint written in cuneiform around 1750 BCE. The Guinness World Records has labeled the tablet of Ea-Nasir as the “oldest written customer complaint.”

The ancient receipt’s discovery sheds some new details about the economic systems and daily life of the Late Bronze Age in the region.

Alalakh was the capital of the Kingdom of Mukish in the second millennium BCE. It served as a major cultural and economic hub, known for its pottery, metal and glass production. The city later became part of the Mittani Empire in the 15th century BCE and was ceded to the Hittites around 1350 BCE, according to Live Science.

“We believe that this tablet … will provide a new perspective in our understanding of the rich heritage of Anatolia for future generations,” Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Ersoy said in a translated statement.