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June 24, 2016
The world's oldest paycheck was cashed in beer
Perhaps it’s no surprise that one of the earliest known examples of writing features two basic human concerns: alcohol and work. About 5000 years ago, the people living in the city of Uruk, in modern day Iraq, wrote in a picture language called cuneiform. On one tablet excavated from the area we can see a human head eating from a bowl, meaning “ration”, and a conical vessel, meaning “beer”. Scattered around are scratches recording the amount of beer for a particular worker. It’s the world’s oldest known payslip, implying that the concept of worker and employer was familiar five millennia ago. New Scientist
Posted by gerardvanderleun at June 24, 2016 11:45 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.