Who Is the First Person That Died

Who Is the First Person That Diedに関する深掘り記事を分かりやすく解説します。関心のある方は必見です。

Technically, the first person to die in all of recorded history is unknown. Death predates writing, after all. But if you’re looking for the first named individual in human history to die, that honor goes to a man from ancient Mesopotamia.

His name? Kushim. Yes, that’s right—the first person we know by name who lived and breathed, and eventually stopped, was a Sumerian accountant. He lived around 3400–3000 BCE in the city of Uruk, modern-day Iraq.

Kushim wasn’t a king or warrior. He was a bureaucrat, his name preserved on clay tablets that tracked barley rations. He died of old age, natural causes, or maybe boredom—history doesn’t say. But his death is the first on record because his name was written down.

Wait—What About Abel?

You might be thinking of the biblical story of Cain and Abel. In that narrative, Abel is the first human to die—and by murder, no less. That’s a powerful archetype, but it’s a mythological first, not a verifiable historical one.

So, if you want a bedtime story, Abel wins. If you want a factual answer for a trivia night, Kushim is your guy. Both remind us that death has always been part of the human story from the very start.