Pay Up 

It is reasonable to assume someone bore the first ever name. Of course, we all doubt that such a name was recorded and preserved. In fact, having a name in general is a relatively recent phenomena, in terms of evolutionary history. There are certainly millions of names throughout the era of prehistory that will remain entirely forgotten and unheard of. Though, as is typical, we have acquired what we suspect is the earliest name available to us. This name, recorded on a 5,000-year-old Sumerian clay tablet, is Kushim. The clay tablet itself is assumed to be, on account of its recording of units of barley, one of the earliest invoices or receipts. The clay tablet, found in the ancient city of Uruk—modern-day Iraq—dates back as far as 3200 BC, or the very ending of the prehistoric era. Kushim, whose name is stamped below units of barley, is presumed to be an accountant or administrator. However, certain scholars argue that Kushim wasn’t a person at all, and instead the title of a job or institution. Whether or not Kushim names a person or an office, this inscription’s significance to discovering the origin of writing remains undeniable. Kushim’s clay tablet, along with other artifacts from its time, gives us reason to suspect that writing developed as a means of recording economic bookkeeping and transaction, rather than storytelling, royal proclamation, or creative expression. Actually, we only begin to find evidence of written narratives and literature much later, with the oldest recorded stories appearing nearly a thousand years after the invention of writing itself. When looking into the evolution of writing, Kushim persists as reliable proof of its original purpose. Despite his wonderfully helpful documentation of trade, Kushim remains as questionable and mysterious as our ancient Adam and Eve. Of course, for all we know, the tablet on which his name was written could have immortalized dear Kushim as a man indebted to barley traders, or as the more respectable title of a good and loyal customer. He and the exact purpose behind the clay tablet is simply forever unknown to us. I will note that Kushim’s existence lives on in a fantastically unique way compared to those he lived beside. We, through our modern obsession with documentation, insistently keep ourselves alive in ways quite similar to his own, whether or not they are intended. Like Kushim, we leave traces of ourselves in the names we scatter throughout history.