If you’ve ever dug out a crumpled shopping list from the bottom of your bag and wondered how many months or even years it’d been there, then you’re not alone.
It appears that humans have been writing themselves a to-do list since the dawn of time, as archaeologists have uncovered what might be the world’s oldest known shopping list.
The note dates back to 3,500 years ago and details some pretty ancient purchases.
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The list was discovered by a team of archaeologists who were excavating a site in Turkey called the Accana Mound, also known as Eski Alalah.
The Accana Mound is located in the old city of Alalah in the southern part of the country.
The region was an urban settlement in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, which was around 2,000 to 1,200 BCE.
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It was home to palaces, houses and fortifications that protected what was the capital of the local kingdom of Mukis.
There, researchers found a cuneiform tablet with a shopping list written out on it.
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East.
This particular one was written out in Akkadian, which is an extinct East Semitic language.
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Mehmet Ersoy, who is the Minister of Culture and Tourism in Turkey, revealed in a press statement that archaeologists had uncovered the cuneiform tablet while completing restoration works in the old city of Alalah after an earthquake.
The tablet dates back to the 15th century BCE and while modern shopping lists usually detail what groceries we’re going to pick up from the supermarket, this one isn’t quite what you expect.
Instead, the primitive tablet depicts a list for a very large number of furniture purchases.
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It’s had researchers puzzled and linguists are still studying the stone to try to work out exactly what it says.
So far, they’ve figured out that there are details for over 200 wooden tables, chairs and stools.
There’s also more information on there about who bought them and they were purchased from.
Ersoy went on to say: “We believe that this tablet, weighing 28 grams, will provide a new perspective in our understanding of the rich heritage of Anatolia for future generations.”
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Jacob Lauinger, a Johns Hopkins University professor of Assyriology who is working to decipher the tablet, said: “We don’t know yet if the furniture is coming or going. It’s either a work order of furniture to be made or a receipt for furniture to be delivered.”