Let’s hear it for the oldest profession in the world. No not that one! We’re talking about accountancy, which can fairly claim to have been around before doctors, dentists or lawyers had even been thought of.
How do we know this? From little bits of clay that for over a century puzzled archaeologists working in what was once ancient Mesopotamia.
Crinkle up your eyes and squint and, at a stretch of the imagination, these pieces of pottery seemed to resemble sheep, oil jars and other every day items from life in this early civilisation.
So what were they? Children’s toys, early Monopoly pieces?
It wasn’t until one sharp-eyed archaeologists crinkled up her eyes and squinted, not at the pieces themselves, but at large, flat bits of clay that had been found with them, she recognised the same symbols repeated there.
Her Eureka moment was to put these two discoveries together and deduce what she had in her hands was the equivalent of double-entry book keeping for dealers who traded in goods produced locally and from further afield.
So not only did accountants emerge before any of the other professions but they also did something quite amazing: they invented writing.
The form of communication used on the tablets is called cuneiform and it’s from this that writing emerged and spread, first through the Middle East before reaching the Mediterranean and then travelling around the world with the goods that were being traded.
Too often accountants find themselves labelled as ‘numbers’ people and not wordsmiths, but the invention of cuneiform proves you can’t have one without the other.
And you really have to be good with words to get on in this profession because much of the time you find yourself speaking to clients who don’t really understand the jargon of your job.
You have to be able to explain things in a language everyone can understand.
Having a way with words also helps with CVs and interviews so, if you see a role you like on s1jobs and want to have the best possible chance of landing it, it’s worth polishing up your word skills before you apply.
How do you do that? Well, you could start by reading a good book. P G Wodehouse is reckoned to have possessed the best English ever set down on paper and he’ll make you laugh too.
And let’s face it: for all its charms, not many jokes have come down to us in cuneiform.
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