The XXI century passes under the sign of advertising. She became so omnipresent that today it is easily forgotten that there was once a time when it was not so much. The first example of advertising today is located in the British Museum in London - this is a papyrus from ancient Egypt, and to be more specifically, from the city of Breaking.
Deciphering the text on this papyrus by age several thousand years, historians, to their amazement, found the most ancient record regarding the dispute between the employer and the employee.
Times Square with illuminated billboards and tourists on the streets
The text states that a certain tissue seller named Hapu is ready to provide an award in gold to someone who informs the location of the slave Siema and will return it to the store.
But this is far from the most interesting. Apparently, already in ancient Egypt knew about marketing. At the end of his ad, Hap did not forget to add: "... to the store, where the most beautiful fabrics taste for any person."
Monumental city of Fiva
Caring for the personal well-being of slaves was clearly far from a paramount cause of the announcement, since the potential buyer could not be credited to the announcement of him who had escaped her slave, but the edge of his eyes would catch that somewhere in the philas sell really standing fabric.
It is believed that the era of Pyramids and Pharaoh began simultaneously with the emergence of advertising. And it was not at all that "disposable" advertising, which people see today. At that time, advertising messages not only wrote on a papyrus, but also cut on the walls and even metal signs. Here, indeed, this advertising poster was not wear.
The most famous symbols of Egyptian culture
However, not all scientists consider this example the oldest of the surviving advertisements. For example, Anthropologist Alan Ames believes that the find from ancient Mesopotamia can be much older than artifact from FIV.
Ames discovered a sign with a picture of a bunch of a woman holding a jug with element. Next to the image (according to the anthropologist), traces of the inscription are visible: "Pey Elbea, beer with a heart of a lion." But this is only the theory of Ames. In addition to the description of the expert, there are no good evidence in support of his statement.
Mesopotamian sign with the image of Tapputo Belaktyll
Now we will move in time in ancient Rome. Before his tragic death, Pompeii was a real "seedler" of ancient advertising.
Local posts of Edil and Duumvirov were clearly in demand, since the election announcements were drawn on the walls on all pompeys. These were positions in the magistrate responsible for such areas as servicing public institutions and law and order.
In Pompeii, there were also many advertisements of prostitutes and brothels. Owners of such establishments have posted pictures of people making love in various poses so that customers can decide what they want from the services offered.
Roman fresco with a banquet scene (fragment) from the house of chastity lovers (Casa Dei Casti Amanti) in Pompei
The Romans were not on all guans, and this is perfectly visible, for example, according to Lupanarium's advertising ("Wolf Logov") - "A specially built brothel ... in which there were 10 rooms for guests." His walls were made by graffiti with "all sorts of species that can be found inside."
But not all ancient advertising was obscene. As an example, you can bring the classical ceramics of ancient Greece. Usually, if Potter was relatively famous, he put stigma on his products, essentially branding them. But some did not stop at this and did in the ceramics of inscriptions like "Vase, which is better than ever could make a euphronium."
Today, such a thought would be much easier to spread through social networks, but thousands of years ago there were much less options, therefore, such unusual "ads" appeared. In any case, since people came up with advertising, she for centuries became one of the most powerful forces in the history of mankind.