33rd-31st century BC. A rectangular pillow-shaped clay tablet with impressed grid and clear pictographic signs on one side. 68 grams, 67mm (2 1/2"). Property of a West Sussex, UK, gentleman; formerly part of a specialised collection of cuneiform texts, the property of a London gentleman and housed in London before 1992, thence by descent to family members; examined by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert FBA (1926-2011), historian, archaeologist, and specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology. The earliest form of writing, called proto-cuneiform, was invented in Mesopotamia during the Late Uruk period, about 3200 BC. It consisted of pictographs: simple drawings and early symbols, drawn or pressed into clay tablets, then fired in a hearth or baked in the sun.