text: Sumerian cuneiform tablets record prescriptions for medicine.
  Ancient Egyptian pharmacological knowledge was recorded in various papyri, such as the Ebers Papyrus of 1550 BC and the Edwin Smith Papyrus of the 16th century BC.
  The very beginnings of pharmaceutical texts were written on clay tablets by Mesopotamians. Some texts included formulas, instructions via pulverization, infusion, boiling, filtering and spreading; herbs were mentioned as well. Babylon, a state within Mesopotamia, provided the earliest known practice of running an apothecary i.e. pharmacy. Alongside the ill person included a priest, physician, and a pharmacist to tend to their needs.