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The secret letters of history's first-known businesswomen

New research gives us insights into history's first well-documented businesswomen, who made their mark earlier than you may think.

The secret letters of history's first-known businesswomen
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Ahaha’s letters are among 23,000 clay tablets excavated over the past decades from the ruins of merchants’ homes in Kanesh. They belonged to Assyrian expats who had settled in Kanesh and kept up a lively correspondence with their families back in Assur, which lay six weeks away by donkey caravan. A new book gives unprecedented insight into a remarkable group within this community: women who seized new opportunities offered by social and economic change, and took on roles more typically filled by men at the time. They became the first-known businesswomen, female bankers and female investors in the history of humanity. 

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The secret letters of history’s first-known businesswomen
New research gives us insights into history’s first well-documented businesswomen, who made their mark earlier than you may think.

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