An Archeological Trip Across Early Ethereum Contracts
<h1>Intrigue of the Ancients</h1>
<p>The earliest contracts in human history may be from thousands of years ago, in <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ancient/mesopotamia-contracts.asp" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">ancient Mesopotamia</a>. Here’s an example of a real-estate transaction containing many familiar ideas:</p>
<p><em>Sini-Ishtar, the son of Ilu-eribu, and Apil-Ili, his brother, have bought one third Shar of land with a house constructed, next the house of Sini-Ishtar, and next the house of Minani; one third Shar of arable land next the house of Sini-Ishtar, which fronts on the street; the property of Minani, the son of Migrat-Sin, from Minani, the son of Migrat-Sin. They have paid four and a half shekels of silver, the price agreed. Never shall further claim be made, on account of the house of Minani…</em></p>
<p>An interesting feature of such written artifacts is their recapitulation of the mundane. Ancient Egyptian recordings, legible after <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Writing-of-the-Gods/Edward-Dolnick/9781501198939" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">epic endeavors</a> to decode them, express a unique and alluring culture but <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ancient/asbook04.asp" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">in ways</a> that are familiar: <a href="https://www.livescience.com/60950-oldest-marriage-contract-infertility-surrogacy.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">contracts</a>, teaching, poetry, private letters, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_literature#Tomb_and_temple_graffiti" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">graffiti</a>, and so on.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*rqnKnUx44NZzi2j5iLok6A.png" style="height:588px; width:700px" /></p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_hieroglyphs#/media/File:Peribsen.JPG" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Oldest full sentence hieroglyph</a>; an official seal</p>
<p>It’s intriguing to draw comparisons to modern blockchain systems. Code on distributed systems may live long into the future, etchings on a ledger, similarly revealing our human tendencies.</p>
<p>But blockchain is not yet two decades old. Nevertheless, many blockchain enthusiasts derive the same “intrigue of the ancients” from decoding and examining samples of code from just a few years ago¹. On Ethereum, there’s now a sizable “historical NFT” <a href="https://metaversal.banklesshq.com/p/historical-nfts" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">community</a> that pores over old projects, often with an eye to rejuvenating, <a href="https://twitter.com/LeonidasNFT/status/1597963590207561728" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">appreciating</a> and speculating on them.</p>
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