...to mention taxes, payrolls, and tributes. Clay tablets the most enduring records Sumerian scribes pressed the triangular tip of a stylus into sof... ...r all the Babylonian city-states and covered many aspects of daily life. Records of landholding rights, obligations toward individuals, judicial dec... .... Many of those reforms impacted trade, court, writing, and governmental records systems. Possibly even more significant was the rapid increase in ... ...pe. Travelers to and from the Orient included not just merchants but also artists, diplomats, doctors, scholars, scientists, and priests from all re... ...cs trained to operate them—served as:  Gathering places for scholars, artists, and literati.  Sanctuaries for foreign translators, émigrés, and...