What is the oldest written text ever discovered? The Kish tablet hypothesis of 3500 BC

The oldest forms of writing known to date pictograms: these are sets of signs that directly represent the concept ol’object that you want to express. Pictographic systems are, for example, that Egyptian hieroglyph (in its early stages) and that Sumerian protocuneiformborn in ancient times Mesopotamia (current Iraq). The oldest written documents in our possession, consequently, originate precisely from this part of the Middle East, and date back to second half of the 4th millennium BC But what is the older absolutely? It could be there Kish tabletdatable around 3500 BC and exposed to Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad. However, answering this question correctly is rather complex: we understand why.

In archaeology, in fact, to allow the correct dating of an artefact, it is necessary to work following the stratigraphic methodwhich allows you to view with a good degree of precision the succession of different earth depositsprecisely the “layers” that bury the sites. Most of the tablets written in protocuneiform in our possession were however found during archaeological excavations carried out between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th centuryin a period in which archaeological science he did not yet apply the stratigraphic method. For this reason, artifacts, once collected from their original context, hardly can be dated precisely.

In general, however, the oldest traces of protocuneiform writing are traced back to the period that archaeologists call “of Uruk”from the name of the main Sumerian city of the time, corresponding to second half of the 4th millennium BC The documents relating to this phase are clay tablets probably used to hold the account of surplus agriculturala necessity of an economic and social nature, which gave rise to the next one evolution of writing.

Although we cannot be entirely certain, the oldest tablet known today is the one from Kishan ancient Sumerian city, today located inCentral Iraqand is traced back around 3500 BC It is currently kept at Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad. In the current state of knowledge, we are not yet able to translate its meaningprobably precisely because it is an expression of a phase of transition extremely complex between pictographic writing and ideographiccapable of reporting more complex concepts.