3,500-Year-Old Receipt Found in Turkey: World’s Oldest Shopping List

Archaeologists in Turkey have made a remarkable discovery: a stone tablet that served as a receipt for furniture purchased 3,500 years ago.

As reported by IFLScience, Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced the find at the Accana Mound archaeological site in the southern Hatay province. The tablet, an ancient receipt, is written in cuneiform, the oldest known writing system. Developed about 5,500 years ago, cuneiform was widely used in ancient Mesopotamian cultures, including the Babylonian and Sumerian civilizations.

Turkey’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Ersoy, explained that the tablet’s inscription is in Akkadian, a type of lingua franca used in the Akkadian Empire. Centered around the ancient city of Akkad in northern Sumer, the Akkadian Empire used this language for communication, which also influenced later languages such as Hebrew and Arabic.

Linguists have deciphered parts of the tablet, revealing details about the sale of chairs and tables and the identities of both the buyer and the seller.

Though not all the inscriptions have been fully deciphered, they speculate that this small stone likely served as a receipt in the ancient empire.

Ersoy emphasized the importance of this discovery, stating the tablet will provide a new perspective on understanding the economic structure and governmental systems of the Late Bronze Age.