Las más antiguas escrituras se estampaban en arcilla húmeda

MS 5106 of the Schoyen Collection, a brick printing block with a large loop handle from the period of Naram-Sîn. (View larger)

The earliest printing was the stamping of inscriptions into the soft clay of bricks before firing, done under the rule of the Sumerian king Naram-Sîn of Akkad (also transcribed Narām-Sîn, Naram-Suen), who built the Temple of Inanna. Prior to Naram-Sîn the inscriptions on the bricks were written by hand.

MS 5106 in the Schoyen Collection is a brick printing block, 13x13x10 cm, 3 lines in a large formal cuneiform script with large loop handle from the period of Naram-Sîn.

Only two other brick printing blocks of Naram-Sîn are known: one intact with a cylindrical handle in Istanbul, and a tiny fragment in British Museum.