OLDEST TEXT IN THE WORLD REACHES 5 500 YEARS OF AGE

The Sumerians is the oldest known civilization and is located in the ancient southern Mesopotamian region. So it should come as no surprise that the earliest known written record comes from Kish, an ancient Sumerian city in present-day Tell al-Uhaymir, Iraq. Originating from the Uruk period (c. 3500–3200 BCE), the Kish Tablet bears proto-cuneiform signs and is named after the place where it was found.

Mesopotamia gave rise to proto-cuneiform, which had its roots primarily in a pictographic system. Unlike modern languages, these pictographs did not directly correspond to the syntax of a spoken language; instead, they were a combination of simple drawings and symbols that represented particular ideas. Proto-cuneiform was designed to preserve economic records, particularly those about labour, trade, and production, rather than to transcribe language messages.

The Kish Tablet and other proto-cuneiform artefacts may be challenging to decipher because of these factors. Despite not having been decoded or shown to correlate to spoken language, the tablet provides an invaluable window into the development of writing throughout antiquity. A stage of transition between a purely pictographic writing system and the more complex and syllabic cuneiform that emerged in the area by the end of the fourth millennium BCE is reflected in the proto-cuneiform marks on the Kish Tablet.