THIS is the world's oldest sales receipt. It is 3500-year-old and exists in the form of cuneiform tablet

The archaeologists made a stunning discovery when they stumbled upon a clay tablet engraved with one of the oldest sales receipts in the world in southern Turkey.

The tablet, which is written in cuneiform, is an ancient document which belonged to the 15th century BCE. The tablet is a record of wooden furniture purchased in large quantities.

Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Ersoy announced the discovery and said that the historic relic was found by researchers at Eski Alalah, in the southern province of Hatay.

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The ancient site, which is also known as the Aççana Mound, is situated in the old city of Alalah. The tablet was found by the workers when they were carrying out restoration work after an earthquake.

Cuneiformis the world's oldest known writing systemdeveloped nearly 5,500 years ago and used across ancient Mesopotamia for nearly three millennia.

The cuneiformtext was created by impressing reed styluses into clay. It was used by different cultures, which included Babylonians, Assyrians, and Sumerians, and each of them used it differently as per their language.

Cuneiform tablet of sales receipt belonged to Akkadian Empire

Minister Ersoy said that the newly found sales slip had been written in Akkadian, which was the Akkadian Empire's lingua franca.

The Akkadian Empire, which survived for little more than a century, had its capital city situated along the banks of the Euphrates River and the empire's now-extinct dialect was among the most ancient Semitic languages - Hebrew and Arabic.

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As of now, the linguists are working on deciphering the text and in the first few lines, they found the sale and purchase of chairs, tables, and stools documented, as well as the identities of the buyers and sellers mentioned.

“We believe that this tablet, weighing 28 grammes [1 ounce], will provide a new perspective in terms of understanding the economic structure and state system of the Late Bronze Age,” Ersoy said, in astatement.

(With inputs from agencies)