The Oldest Advice Book Didn't Feel Ancient

Today I tried to find and read one of the oldest books in the world that was not about religion, and I happened to find The Instructions of Shuruppak. This book came from around 3000 BC. It was written in an ancient language and later translated by Oxford University.

The book is basically a collection of advice from a father to his son, from around 5,000 years ago, at the time when human society was starting to have writing.

And when writing appeared, it was also around the time people started building more systems to manage society and make rules. What I found interesting was that the advice did not sound as strange or far away as I imagined.

The father teaches his son many things. Some are about behavior and morality: avoid conflict, don’t stay around places where people are arguing, be careful with your words, don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t kill people. Then there are also very practical things about managing property, choosing land, buying and selling livestock. He also talks about how to deal with people inside the family, and some bigger ideas about fate and power.

After reading it, I felt even more that human intelligence and awareness had already developed very far a long time ago. People in ancient times were probably not that different from us in the basic way they thought. They just didn’t have the modern tools we have now.