More than 5,000 years ago, in the land between two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, a scribe sat with a lump of wet clay and a reed pen cut to a sharp wedge. Press, press, press: he was writing down how many sheep a farmer owed the temple. He was using one of the first kinds of writing in the world.
Key idea
Each city had a giant stepped temple called a ziggurat, and farmers dug canals to bring river water to their fields. Sumerians counted in sixties, and that is why we still have 60 minutes in an hour and 360 degrees in a circle.
About 1754 BC, Hammurabi, king of Babylon, had nearly 300 laws carved on a tall stone so that people could know the rules. Some laws seem very harsh to us, like "an eye for an eye." The big idea was new: the laws were written down for all to see, and the same rules applied each time.
Worked example: How long ago?
- One date is BC and one is AD: add them: 1,754 + 2,000 = 3,754.
- Take away 1 for the missing year 0: 3,753.
Answer: About 3,750 years.
Common mistake
Try it at home
- Flatten a ball of play dough or modeling clay into a tablet.
- Use the end of a craft stick or a pencil to press wedge-shaped marks into it. Make up a sign for "sheep" and count five sheep.
- Hold up your tablet: could someone else read it? That is why scribes had to agree on the signs.