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Ikras

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Ikras is the earlist known named person to have inhabited Syara. The name Ikras appears on a series of clay tablets recorded sometime between 3300-3000 BCE, which detail the counting of bushels of wheat in the town of Elkriskos; these are collectively known as the Ikras Tablets within Syaran histography.

Tablets

Ikras is either the name of a person or the title of an induvidual who was tasked with gathering bushels of wheat in the town of Elkriskos (near present day Cuprasi, Galania). The author of the clay tablets is uncertain, and describes Ikras in the third person, suggesting that the author is someone different, most likely a scribe working with or for Ikras. Literacy during the time would have been limited, and writing itself was a tedious process. The tablets themselves are incomplete and some of the writing has eroded over the milennia, potentially concealing more information or the authorship of the tablets. The most clear and well understood of the tablet reads "Ikras gathers six bushels for distribution". Additional writing on the other tablets is fragmentary but indicates "Ikras recieves [payment] for two bushels" and "[Ikras] gathers four bushels". The fourth and final tablet reads "Ikras ends gathering three bushels", suggesting that the harvest season had ended or he had stopped receiving bushels of wheat to sell. There is some indicators that there were more tablets made, but they were either lost to history or have yet to be recovered.

Identity

Ikras is generally believed to have been a personal name due to the lack of other evidence to suggest Ikras was a title, such as it being located in other communities or being linguistically linked with ancient Syaran languages. Some researchers however have suggested that Ikras was a title in a now dead language. Ikras's occupation is uncertain; he was either a farmer of wheat, or someone who sold wheat to others as an intermediary between wheat farmers and merchats or other Syarans. It is also possible Ikras was some sort of government official who collected excess wheat as a form of taxation, under the assumption that "gathering" is not literally taken. This view is not widely endorsed however due to the second tablet recording Ikras recieving compenstation for two bushels. It is generally considered that Ikas was likely moderately wealthy or succesful as he either had someone to record his transaction (it is unlikely a slave would be able to read or write), or if he composed them himself he was educated enough to write. Without more tablets or evidence it is impossible to state with certainty what Ikras's role was, only that he sold or otherwise distributed wheat, either wheat he grew himself or he collected from farmers.