When you or someone you are caring for is seriously ill, it is recommend that you keep EOBs for five years after the illness or condition is alleviated. If you or the patient is claiming or has claimed a medical deduction, keep the explanation of benefits for seven years.
The earliest writing can be traced to Sumer, in Mesopotamia. This system did not use an alphabet, instead it used pictographs which are symbols representing familiar objects. This type of writing was called cuneiform, or wedge-shaped writing. Egyptians used hieroglyphics, also a pictograph system.
Cuneiform was invented by the Sumerians, who lived in what is now southern, relatively coastal Iraq between about 10,000 and 4,000 years ago. It was first used to write Sumerian, and later Akkadian and a number of other languages. Although other writing systems were developed independently in China and by the Mayans, cuneiform is the oldest attested writing system, and evidence of any older writing systems has either not been discovered or not survived.