Idalion Tablet
[1] The tablet was kept in the ancient official depository of the temple of Athena on the western acropolis of Idalion, where it was discovered in 1850 by a farmer from the village of Dali, Cyprus.
It is engraved on both sides with a long inscription recording a contract entered into by 'the king and the city' and gives a reward to a family of physicians who provided free health services for the casualties when the city was besieged by the Persians and the Kitians in 478-470 BC.
The joint decision by the king and citizens shows the democratic nature of the city, similar to Greek models.
The tablet is often considered as the most ancient sample of an insurance contract since it encompasses some of the major characteristics of modern insurance contracts[2] Approximately two lines of the text state as follows: Below is the Greek translation, associated with the Cypriot characters.
Face A, line 3 starts with Cypriot character ro (looks like a 'loop of rope, open end down'; the loop is the character's top half), and line 4 starts with Cypriot ma (an 'X', with a small upside-down-karat in the top crux):
