5000-Year-Old Database: More Reliable Than Modern Ones?

A picture of a 5000-year-old Sumerian database sparked the author's reflection on the upper limit of date storage in databases. The image shows a database from 3100 BC recording accounts of malt and barley, boasting reliability far exceeding modern databases. Tests revealed that MySQL can't store dates before 4713 BC, while PostgreSQL and SQLite can. This prompted the author to ponder how to store even older dates, such as museum artifact records, suggesting solutions like using epoch timestamps or custom systems.