Dr. Michelle FullwoodJan 17, 2023

I've been collecting interesting examples of information organisation in history, focusing on non-Western civilisations. I came across this example of an ancient Mesopotamian spreadsheet! It records wages paid to temple workers in 1295 BCE.

#History #AncientHistory #Cuneiform #Mesopotamia #CognitiveHistory

Show threadCyber YukiJan 17, 2023
@michelleful Is there a transliteration / translation available?
Show threadDr. Michelle Fullwood
@yuki2501 I think p. 18 of this document http://www.etana.org/sites/default/files/coretexts/14894.pdf is this tablet.
Jan 18, 2023 at 3:29pmWeb
Show threadCyber YukiJan 18, 2023
@michelleful Sweet! 😃
Show threadhramrachFeb 19, 2023

@michelleful @yuki2501 Actually, is this from a time when cunieform included ideographs, or from a time when it was standardized as a phonetic writing system?

Apparently both existed throughout history, and without understanding the writing it is hard to tell.

Show threadDr. Michelle FullwoodFeb 19, 2023
@hramrach @yuki2501 That's a great question, and I wish I knew the answer! As I understand it, even in the later system, they used a lot of "sumerograms" anyway, so it could still have been a bit of a mix.