WRITTEN IN 5000 B.C.

Evening Star, Issue 20375, 6 January 1930, Page 2

WRITTEN IN 5000 B.C.

WORLD’S OLDEST LETTER One of tlie most interesting of the exhibits in the Antiques Show in the Grafton Galleries held in London some time ago was a letter believed to be the Oldest m the world (says ■an English paper). It was written in 5000 n.c., and refers to a deed of purchase or hue of a field by one Annum from SimtiHa.

It is written in cuneiform characters on fired clay. It was found during recent excavations at Ur of the Chaldees Those who figured in the transaction lived in the dynasty of Darzo, which was tho first Babylonian dynasty. Several first dynasty contracts were found relating to commercial journeys and recording the terms of bargains entered into between interested parties. The market places of the capital and the larger towns were the centres where most of the business transactions took place, and official scribes were always in attendance to draw up the terms of any bargain in tho presence ot other merchants and traders, who acted as witnesses. These had their names enumei ated at the close of the document, and, since they were chosen from local residents, some were always at hand to tes tify in case of any subsequent dispute Care was always exercised in the matter of witnesses, particularly in the cases the seller was required to testify in the presence of witnesses that the human merchandise he was selling was rightly a slave, and that the buyer could not be held responsible in the event that it developed later that the person sold as a slave had any rights other than those accorded to slaves This precaution was taken, perhaps, to contravene the illicit slave trade that must have been carried on then as it was in later years in Egypt.