In 1878, a group of French archeologists was digging at the site of the ancient city of Lagash in Mesopotamia, a region now known as the Middle East.

These archeologists uncovered three clay cones, and an oval-shaped plaque, all inscribed in ancient Sumerian cuneiform (a form of writing).

These inscriptions were copied and translated by Francois Thureau-Dangin, and scholars learned for the first time of the earliest known recorded example of government tax reform.

Each of the cones, and the plaque, contained an account of the story of Urukagina, and how he halted the growth of bureaucracy and dictatorship in Lagash, around the time of 2,400 B.C. **

It appears that the people of Lagash had fallen upon evil days. Taxes under the Ur-Nansh dynasty were ruinous, and every transaction was supervised by government officials to the extent that freedom of any sort of action had all but disappeared.

Prior to the rise of the Ur-Nanshe dynasty, Lagash had apparently been a prosperous, flourishing city-state, characterized by a system of privately-held land, and a great deal of free enterprise.

** Refers to the work of Samuel Noah Kramer in his book History Begins at Sumer, who in turn credits the work of Sumerologist Arno Poebel, for this translation of the story contained in the cones and plaque.