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What makes the world’s first bar joke funny? No one knows.

This is the first episode of a two-part series on the origin of jokes and humor. The story appears in podcast feeds under the title, "Jokes, Part I: Sumer Funny, Sumer Not." Listen to part two here.
insider.si.edu

The invention of cuneiform writing in Sumer Jean-Jacques Glassner ; translated and edited by Zainab Bahrani and Marc Van de Mieroop

1. The Sumerian Account of the Invention of Writing -- 2. Time and Place of the Invention -- 3. Received Ideas: The Pictographic Origins of Cuneiform Writing -- 4. Received Ideas: The Origin of ...
insider.si.edu

The Sumerians their history, culture, and character Samuel Noah Kramer

Archeology and decipherment -- History : heroes, kings, and ensi's -- Society : the Sumerian city -- Religion : theology, rite, and myth -- Literature : the Sumerian ...
WBUR

Best of Summer: What makes the world’s first bar joke funny? No one knows.

This is the first episode of a two-part series on the origin of jokes and humor. Listen to part two here. This episode originally aired on August 5, 2022. In the late 1800s, archeologists in Iraq ...