Also not under the topic of archeology is what ancient people were doing, which is what we are doing here today, which is gabbing. For more than 10,000 years, oral traditions were telling stories that were only transcribed in cuneiform about 3,000 years ago. The great flood was a most popular story and resembled the biblical version we have today. Even Neanderthals must have had some form of oral language.

Cuneiform is basically syllabic and was reserved for the elite and not considered to be taught to anyone but talented scribes. If it were not for King Darius, we would not have a rossetta stone of sorts that allowed us to decipher cuneiform texts in the 19th century. Two forms of cuneiform evolved together, Sumerian and Semitic.

When symbols stood for the sounds of speech, the written language became highly complex, with many similar sounds that depended entirely on context. The British Museum has several hundred thousand cuneiform clay tablets. They offer a window into ancient thought. Also board games were extremely popular.