Both in reality and in myth, the first writing developed out of necessity, made possible by serendipity. The same geological circumstances that made southern Mesopotamia fertile enough for surplus agriculture also left behind rich deposits of clay, which allow for the birth not just of writing, but of humanity itself. According to Mesopotamian mythology, clay becomes the medium that the gods use to make the first human beings (and then human beings go on to record those very creation myths in the same material).
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