Kushim ( Sumerian: ; ) is supposedly the earliest known recorded name of a person in writing. The name "Kushim" is found on several

Uruk period The Uruk period (; also known as Protoliterate period) existed from the protohistory, protohistoric Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age period in the history of Mesopotamia, after the Ubaid period and before the Jemdet Nasr period. Named after the S ...

(c. 3400–3000 BC)

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian language, Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay t ...

s used to record transactions of

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

. It is uncertain if the name refers to an individual, a generic title of an officeholder, or an institution.

Uruk period tablets

Writing in ancient

Sumer Sumer () is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. ...

was a time-consuming activity known to few. For this reason, writing was mainly used to keep necessary economic records.

Literacy Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

Uruk Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...

was also likely limited at the time. A clay tablet detailing a trade transaction contains one of the first examples of

rebus writing A rebus ( ) is a puzzle device that combines the use of illustrated pictures with individual letters to depict words or phrases. For example: the word "been" might be depicted by a rebus showing an illustrated bumblebee next to a plus sign (+ ...

. It reads "28,086 measures

37 months Kushim." This may be interpreted as having been signed by "Kushim." , Kushim's name was known to appear in 18 separate Proto-cuneiform clay tablets from the period. Another Uruk period clay tablet that featured names dating back to around 3100 BC includes the names of a slave owner (Gal-Sal) and Gal-Sal's two slaves (En-pap X and the woman Sukkalgir). This tablet was likely produced one or two generations after the Kushim Tablet.

Identity

Kushim is believed to have been either an individual or a generic title of an officeholder. The

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

characters "KU" and "ŠIM" were not presented with much context, and therefore it is difficult to determine whether such sign combinations denote a person, the person's office, or an entire institution. Kushim was responsible for the production and storage of barley. Some of the tablets charge the distribution of barley to several officials as various

debits Debits and credits in double-entry bookkeeping are entries made in account ledgers to record changes in value resulting from business transactions. A debit entry in an account represents a transfer of value ''to'' that account, and a credit ...

, with the summation on the reverse as a single credit for the discharge of Kushim's liability. One relatively simple account shows the charging of various amounts of barley to three officials on the obverse, while Kushim was credited for the total amount distributed to the officials on the reverse. However, the reverse could also be interpreted as Kushim's account. Other tablets are more intricate, showing the input of various ingredients on the obverse (malt,

dates Date or dates may refer to: * Date, the fruit of the date palm (''Phoenix dactylifera'') * Jujube, also known as red date or Chinese date, the fruit of ''Ziziphus jujuba'' Social activity *Dating, a form of courtship involving social activit ...

, etc.), while showing different kinds of beer as output on the reverse side. One tablet shows Kushim providing 14,712 liters of barley to four officials, for which they were properly discharged.

References

Notes

External links

MS 1717: Beer production at the Inanna Temple in Uruk
in the

Schøyen Collection __NOTOC__ The Schøyen Collection is one of the largest private manuscript collections in the world, mostly located in Oslo and London. Formed in the 20th century by the father of current owner Martin Schøyen, it comprises manuscripts of global ...

MSVO 3, 29
at the

Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) is an international digital library project aimed at putting text and images of an estimated 500,000 recovered cuneiform tablets created from between roughly 3350 BC and the end of the pre-Christian e ...

Tablets containing Kushim
at the

What was the first (known) maths mistake?
video by

Matt Parker Matthew Thomas Parker (born 22 December 1980) is an Australian recreational mathematics, recreational mathematician, author, comedian, YouTube personality and Science communication, science communicator based in the United Kingdom. His book ''H ...

A photograph of a tablet containing Kushim
Clay tablets Sumerian people History of accounting Uruk period 4th-millennium BC people Asian people whose existence is disputed

Uruk period tablets

Identity

See also

References

Notes

Further reading

External links