Who’s the First Person in History Whose Name We Know?
www.nationalgeographic.com
Editor’s Note: This post has updated to clarify a sentence about the gender of the ancient writer. “It’s me!” they’d say, and they’d leave a sign. Leave it on the cave wall. Maybe as a prayer, maybe a graffito, we don’t know. This was 30,000 years ago. Writing hadn’t been invented, so they couldn’t […]

The receipt says: “29,086 measures barley 37 months Kushim”. The most probable reading of this sentence is: “A total of 29,086 measures of barley were received over the course of 37 months. Signed, Kushim.”