# Oldest autograph **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 17, 2007, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-autograph/415906 "2007-08-17T05:53:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-autograph/415906/1 "2007-08-17T05:53:24Z")
In [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=433058) thread, someone (Triskadecamus?) mentions the oldest “historic autograph”. It got me to ‘speculatin’… what is the oldest verified autograph we know of. Parameters: Need not be famous, just the oldest autograph of someone we think actually signed something (not the authority to do so, but the actual sig of the individual). ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-autograph/415906/2 "2007-08-17T06:37:32Z")
[QUOTE=Don’t fight the hypothetical] In [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=433058) thread, someone (Triskadecamus?) mentions the oldest “historic autograph”. It got me to ‘speculatin’… what is the oldest verified autograph we know of. Parameters: Need not be famous, just the oldest autograph of someone we think actually signed something (not the authority to do so, but the actual sig of the individual). [/QUOTE] Maybe not _exactly_ what you’re looking for, but loosely defined it’s almost certainly one of [these](http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/hands/index.php). ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-autograph/415906/3 "2007-08-17T06:54:03Z")
[QUOTE=Koxinga] Maybe not _exactly_ what you’re looking for, but loosely defined it’s almost certainly one of [these](http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/hands/index.php). [/QUOTE] I love those. I used to live in both NM and Arizona and found quite a few exploring on my own. But what I was really looking for was a specific individual who wrote, carved or otherwise scrawled his or her name into eternity. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-autograph/415906/4 "2007-08-17T07:19:44Z")
An older edition of the Guinness Book of World Records said that an autograph of El Cid (1044-1099) is the oldest existing of a notable person. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-autograph/415906/5 "2007-08-17T09:29:40Z")
[QUOTE=Don’t fight the hypothetical] But what I was really looking for was a specific individual who wrote, carved or otherwise scrawled his or her name into eternity. [/QUOTE] The 1991 _Guinness Book of Records_, and I really must update this tome, gives the following: (1) Cuneiform clay tablets: From Tell Abu Salabikh, Iraq (c. 2600 BC). A scribe named ‘a-du’ added ‘dub-sar’ after his name thus translating to ‘Adu, scribe’. (2) Papyrus: From the Egyptian middle kingdom period (c. 2130 BC) the signature of the scribe Amen-'aa appears on a papyrus now located in the Leningrad Museum. The article states also that the earliest full signature extant from the British monarchy is that of Richard II (dated 26 July 1386) but fails to define the stationery. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-autograph/415906/6 "2007-08-17T14:57:37Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] An older edition of the Guinness Book of World Records said that an autograph of El Cid (1044-1099) is the oldest existing of a notable person. [/QUOTE] He was no fool. If my name was Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar then I’d sign my autographs _El Cid_ as well. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-autograph/415906/7 "2007-08-17T16:22:50Z")
All of Hammurabi’s (1700s BC) letters on clay tablets are written in the same hand. Some believe that Hammurabi himself wrote them. (Given the length of his reign and all.) His name of course appears in the tablets and might thus constitute an autograph. A fairly unusual circumstance, if true. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-autograph/415906/8 "2007-08-17T16:50:00Z")
[QUOTE=ftg] Some believe that Hammurabi himself wrote them. (Given the length of his reign and all.) [/QUOTE] Were they written in code?