Uruk IV Tablet - Earliest Known Writing System from Mesopotamia #3482490 (License: Personal Use)

The tablet, dating to the Uruk IV period (~3100 BCE), features incised pictographic signs arranged in grid-like compartments-representing commodities like barley, sheep, and laborers. It exemplifies the transition from token-based accounting to written record-keeping in early Mesopotamian urban administration. Found in modern-day Warka, Iraq, it is housed in the British Museum.

Used on museum, archaeology, and ancient history web pages to illustrate the origins of writing; serves users researching early literacy, Sumerian economy, or the development of scripts.