Clay Tablet Archive

Record-keeping on clay tablets, and later papyrus or parchment, was essential for administration in the ancient world. Originally developed to record taxes, writing quickly developed to include historical accounts, philosophies, religion and ideas. Cuneiform writing on clay tablets was used for thousands of years. Tablets were fired if a permanent record was needed. Over the centuries, tax records and administrative archives gave way to the great libraries and eventually academies, known in the east as daneshgah - the pre-cursor to the modern university.