HistoryCirca 3200 BC (Late Uruk period)Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq)high confidence

Uruk was the site of the earliest known writing, dating to about 3200 B.C.

Notes on verification

Well-corroborated by multiple high-quality independent sources (Met Museum, Britannica, Archaeology Magazine, World History Encyclopedia, Wikipedia). Minor scholarly debate exists over exact dating (some argue for 3350-3300 BC), but the core claim aligns with widely cited consensus. [cascade flags: aggregator_dropped_primary_exists,wikipedia_dropped_other_sources_exist | tier=silver indep_score=0.8 clusters=3 claim_tier=everyday | framework convergence=partial on Archaeological dating of the Uruk IV/III strata and the conventional 3200 BC benchmark widely used in reference literature (upstreams: German Archaeological Institute excavations at Uruk (Eanna district), Denise Schmandt-Besserat token hypothesis, Robert Englund/Hans Nissen/Jean-Jacques Glassner proto-cuneiform chronology studies) — publishers independent, evidence may not be | kind=empirical eligibility=high (extractor: empirical/medium)]

Sources