Cuneiform Sumerian tablet, 4th to 3rd millennium BC. Administrative account from Sumerian Mesopotamia, thought to concern the grain distributed by a large temple. It dates from the Jemdet Nasr period, around 3100-2900 BC, and is thought to be from Uruk (modern Warka). The pictographs on this clay tablet are called proto-cuneiform and were drawn with a pointed implement. Circular impressions represent numerical symbols. When fired the records written on the clay became permanent. Early writing was used primarily to record economic information. This object is part of the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, USA.