The item contains the “autograph” of an individual, said to be the “first recorded personal name of any human in history…Kushim”

308 points by Responsible_Ideal879 a day ago on reddit | 14 comments

januarytwentysecond | 15 hours ago

I'll watch the sitcom where Kushim and Ea-Nasir are roommates.

OneSidedDice | 6 hours ago

“How do I know you’re really my cousin Kushim from Eridu and not…” *Both look directly into camera and say together* “…Perfect Strangers!”

HapticSloughton | 14 hours ago

It was almost painful how much that site is stretching to tie that tablet to "Biblical Archaeology."

Edit: And OP blocked me over this comment for some reason? Really?

[OP] Responsible_Ideal879 | 14 hours ago

Those regions and names existed outside of the Bible. Genesis 10:6-20 is specific to Sumer, etc.

By any measure that is not a stretch. It’s two textual records.

Fredasa | 11 hours ago

Yeah, I took a gander. If anything, they underscore how something they were referencing in the Bible preexisted in a Mesopotamian record.

But I also get where the other fellow is coming from. Scholars know better, but most people don't understand the Bible as a mishmash of record and folklore (and, occasionally, repurposed mythology).

[OP] Responsible_Ideal879 | 11 hours ago

Cultural derivation. The story of Abraham is a story of migration from Mesopotamia (Sumer) to Canaan regardless of a person believes that individual existed or not.

pornborn | 5 hours ago

This made me think about an identification that would be more personal to an individual. To wit: a fingerprint. The oldest fingerprint found seems to be 43,000 years old.

https://www.earth.com/news/archaeologists-find-possible-proof-that-neanderthals-made-art-painted-rock/

Yeah, I was thinking about those ochre hand prints in caves when I saw the title.

cronkgarrow | 5 hours ago

He may also be the first person to ever record a maths mistake according to this video.

https://youtu.be/MZVs6wF7nC4?si=ZbDHG9pZ-TSSr55D

SharkLaunch | 5 hours ago

Matt Parker, my beloved

thornyRabbt | 6 hours ago

"~~first~~ earliest known personal name."

We may never know when the first one was recorded.

cindoc75 | 6 hours ago

lol - just watched this video about this last night! https://youtu.be/zLKktS61JrM?si=5D3HrKnRC7nk7gFd