ABSTRACT
Various records from cultures before that of classical Greece are sometimes included in texts as examples of cryptography, but the term must be used loosely, as the methods are extremely primitive. How far back one looks for the origins of cryptology depends on how far one is willing to stretch definitions. Most authors would agree that Henry E. Langen went back a bit too far in his Cryptanalytics-A Course in Cryptography:
We shall be content to begin in ancient Sumer with an example of “protocryptography.” The Sumerians recognized many gods, but only 12 were part of the “Great Circle.” Six of these were male and six female.
