If you’re wondering what a spreadsheet looked like in 1800 BCE, here is one that tallies foodstuffs for cattle received by four cowherds.
Three are named in the right hand column as Ubar-Shamash, Sin-iddinam, Sin-re’um, and the last one making the record simply writes “mine”
Three are named in the right hand column as Ubar-Shamash, Sin-iddinam, Sin-re’um, and the last one making the record simply writes “mine”
Comments
I always wonder if names today in that region would have any relationship to names then.
It reminds me that, as a youth, I spent a week with the British archaeologists in Northern Iraq.
The finder of the only cuneiform (David?) said “I bet it’s a shopping list” but they had to wait for Jeremy Black to have a look.
It was a farmers list!
(Even as a lay-person the book is fantastic btw!)
I love when you get stuff from history that reminds you that people 4000 years ago were just…people. People just like us, dealing with a lot of the same things.