During the tenth excavation campaign of the Italian Archaeological Mission in the ancient Sumerian city of Niĝin (Tell Zurghul) in Iraq, directed by Davide Nadali, professor in the Department of Ancient Sciences, a cuneiform tablet dating back to the end of the fourth millennium BC was discovered.

The tablet, read and interpreted by Lorenzo Verderame, professor at the SARAS Department, records the distribution of large quantities of fish, which must have been one of the most common foods in ancient times for a city like Niĝin, surrounded by an aquatic environment characterised by the presence of both fresh water (rivers and canals) and salt water (the sea).

In addition to recording individual species, the scribe notes five hundred wicker containers used for transporting and storing fish. This detail is particularly interesting because it is confirmed by archaeological evidence, namely the numerous fish bones found in the excavated areas and the discovery of bitumen seals bearing the imprints of the wicker weave and the ropes used to close these containers.

The writing, distributed in two columns on each side of the tablet, is proto-cuneiform. The pictograms are similar to those used in Uruk, where writing first appeared in human history at the end of the 4th millennium BC. The exceptional nature of the discovery is linked to the fact that it is the first evidence of such writing in the Lagash region and, more generally, outside the city of Uruk, and is further proof of the spread of this early form of writing and the administrative system that created it.