The texts contain cuneiform symbols, an early writing system, and show the red tape of government bureaucracy dates back over ...

Red tape may feel like a modern-day frustration, but according to archaeologists, it's been a part of governance for millennia. Evidence from ancient Mesopotamia reveals that bureaucratic systems were ...

The finds, which also include dozens of clay sealings, contain details of a metric system used to measure resources, as well ...

Archaeologists from the British Museum and Iraq have uncovered over 200 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablets at Girsu, shedding ...

The tablets were discovered in the Sumerian site of Girsu, called Tello today. Settled around 4500 B.C.E. in modern-day Iraq, Sumer is the world’s oldest known civilization. During the third ...

The oldest reference in the first known writing — cuneiform — was not about gods or kings, but about beer. Lots of it. It was ...

These 4,000-year-old tablets, uncovered at the ancient Sumerian city of Girsu (modern-day Tello), reveal everything from the mundane to the monumental: barley rations, livestock transactions ...

These were the state archives of the ancient Sumerian site of Girsu, in modern-day Tello, while the city was controlled by the Akkad dynasty from 2300 to 2150BC. While the texts may not be great ...