Tucked away inside a museum in Istanbul, Turkey, is a small clay tablet covered in wedge-shaped writing. Scholars call it Istanbul 2461. It was made in the city of Nippur around 2030 BCE, and it is the oldest known love poem in the world.
The poem is written from the point of view of a priestess speaking to a Sumerian king. She calls him sweet as honey, says her heart aches for him, and asks him to come to her chamber. It was probably sung aloud during a religious ceremony where the king and priestess acted out the role of two gods who loved each other.
What’s striking is how familiar the lines feel. Even though this was written thousands of years ago, the way the writer talks about missing someone, about being awake at night thinking of them, sounds like a song you might hear today. People have been writing love poems for a very long time.
