Archaeologists have been excavating two ancient seaports on the Red Sea. Both are very far from any ancient or modern habitation. The larger was in operation only during the period of building the Great Pyramid, and was across the Red Sea from the Sinai copper mines.

Both have hand cut caves up to 100 feet long in which ships were stored during the months they were not needed. The big surprise was finding a large cache of the oldest paperwork so far found anywhere, 4600 years old, much of it in very good condition.

Apparently the port was sealed up when the news came that Pharaoh Kufu had died. all this paperwork, including shipping logs, travel records and other transportation and management matters, for both the Nile and Red Sea, was tossed into one of the ship storage caves and sealed up.

The ships were all removed for use elsewhere. This port was never re-opened. Instead, they built a smaller port to the north, much farther from the copper mines, but with a much shorter land route to the Nile. This would indicate that ship building technology had improved to the point longer voyages were not a problem.

One of the most notable documents is a shipping official's time sheets, accounting for his time in half day increments, Included location, cargo handled, origins and destinations, and other details.

Some social idealists are rather distressed that written language probably originated from accounting. Originally, caravan inventories were beads of clay stamped with a symbol representing particular goods. These were placed in a jar sealed with wax and the sealer's imprint. At the other end, the accountant would break the jar and compare the symbolic beads with physical inventory of the caravan.

Later, the jars were replaced by clay tablets, with specific symbols for types of goods and a numeric symbol for how many of each, plus the seal of the originator.

Lots of examples of the beads and tablets have been found, but it was a while before archaeologists realized what they were.