Over 7000 years ago, the history's earliest civilization began to rise in Mesopotamia, fueled by the floods of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Many ideas that the Sumerians first practiced are still widespread today. Writing is among these ideas. First used for accounting in trade documents, Cuneiform script was written on clay tablets for thousands of years after Sumer had fallen.

Among 18 of these early accounting tablets lies another historical milestone: the oldest known name. A tablet dated to 3200 BC had the following inscription:

28,086 measures barley 37 months Kushim

Historians are unsure if "Kushim" referred to a person, a title, or an organization, but it is the oldest name we remember today.

The list of oldest names includes some other interesting individuals. Two generations after Kushim, the names of two slaves are recorded while their slave-owner's name is forgotten. An ancient king of Egypt is also on the list.

These ancient names facsinate me. It is certainly just random chance that made these names remembered for many millenia after their bearers had passed. They beg the question: Who does history remember? Who do we forget?

From prehistory, all that seems to remain are various stone tools, artifacts, and cave paintings. In its own way, this serves as a rememberance of the people who made them – their legacy is in these artifacts, carried on in a distinguishable way. After the invention of writing, though, there have been many opportunities for a more specific form of rememberance.

Look to the ancient world, for example. We remember great thinkers, religious leaders, and philosophers. We remember leaders who transformed their nations or conquered vast lands (though I find it interesting that we don't seem to remember the leaders in between). More modern still, we remember the scientists, the artists, the musicians who shaped our culture today.

This seems to hit at a deeper notion, a constant that underlies each of these different groups of people who have a tendency to be remembered. The constant is that all of these people shape our culture. The philosophers and religious leaders shape the way we think and act. The scientists and inventors build the technologies we use every day. The artists and musicians shape our entertainment and leisure.