📜 4,000-year-old tablets speak of magic and... bureaucracy

Deep in the storerooms of the National Museum of Denmark lay millennia-old clay tablets covered in engravings.

Today, these remnants of cuneiform writing reveal a surprising duality: on one hand, kings using spells to consolidate their authority; on the other, modest accountants recording beer deliveries. This contrast shows how early organized societies already mixed the sacred with the everyday.

A team of researchers from the museum and the University of Copenhagen has just deciphered, analyzed, and digitized the entire collection as part of the "Hidden Treasures" project. Among the texts are medical recipes, personal letters, magical rituals, and king lists. This diversity reveals the scope of activities of Mesopotamian civilizations, from present-day Syria to Iraq.


The tablets from the Syrian city of Hama, excavated in the 1930s, are particularly rare. Most were taken by the Assyrians after the city's destruction in 720 BCE, but a few remained on site. One of them contains an "anti-sorcery" ritual intended to protect the king from misfortunes such as political instability. A practice that lasted all night, involving the burning of wax and clay figurines.

This ritual was closely linked to the Assyrian court, which surprises archaeologists: how could such a tablet end up so far from the center of power? Hama was on the periphery of the empire, far from cultural capitals like Babylon. The discovery shows that these magical beliefs spread well beyond royal circles, to the very edges of controlled territories.

The collection also includes a copy of a famous king list, dating back to a time before the Flood. This document mentions legendary and historical rulers, including the famous Gilgamesh. For researchers, this is further evidence that this epic hero may have actually existed. The Danish museum was unaware it possessed this rare text.

Other tablets, from the excavations at Tell Shemshara in Iraq, reveal everyday administrative life. They include correspondence between a local chief and an Assyrian king around 1800 BCE, as well as lists of goods and personnel. One of the most surprising documents is a simple receipt for beer, proof that bureaucracy already existed on a very concrete scale.

These discoveries show that cuneiform writing, born around 5,200 years ago, played a central role in organizing the first city-states. Through it, rulers could govern, record taxes, but also record their beliefs and rituals. The digitization of these tablets now allows us to preserve and study a little-known part of human history.