Q: When it comes to the world of work, the oldest one of these was found and dates back 5000 years. What is it?
A: The oldest known pay stub. From Uruk, modern day Iraq. It was written on a stone tablet and shows that the employee was paid in food and beer.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that one of the earliest known examples of writing features two basic human concerns: alcohol and work. About 5000 years ago, the people living in the city of Uruk, in modern day Iraq, wrote in a picture language called cuneiform. On one tablet excavated from the area we can see a human head eating from a bowl, meaning “ration”, and a conical vessel, meaning “beer”. Scattered around are scratches recording the amount of beer for a particular worker. It’s the world’s oldest known payslip, implying that the concept of worker and employer was familiar five millennia ago.
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