Many scholars believe that cuneiform writing, glass, accounting -- and even bureaucracy -- were invented there.

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Many surmise cuneiform writing originated in ancient Mesopotamia to record business transactions.

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The city's financial and administrative systems relied on the world's first known system of writing, cuneiform, which was used to record transactions, issue receipts and compile inventories.

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"It is the case that at about 3200 BC the first cuneiform tablets were written that we really do recognise as being representations of language, that being the standard definition of writing, " he said.

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