A 3,500-Year-Old Data Table Unearthed in Mesopotamia
2024-12-21
A blog post details the discovery of a clay tablet from ancient Mesopotamia (circa 3600-4000 BCE) containing a remarkably organized data table. The cuneiform text, transliterated and translated, resembles a payroll summary from a construction project. The tablet demonstrates the use of rows, columns, and column headers, along with calculations, strikingly similar to modern spreadsheets. This discovery pushes back the known history of data table use by over 3500 years. The author argues that civilization's progress isn't linear, with inventions lost and reinvented. While today's digital spreadsheets may vanish, ancient data tables like this one may endure.
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