Exploring the Origins of Tables for Information Visualization

This paper considers the deep history of tables as visualization modalities. It covers four kinds of tables that have appeared between 1900 BCE and 1300 CE: Sumerian accounting tables, chronicles, canon tables, and medieval calendars as representations of some of the earliest milestones in information visualization. Analysis of these tables demonstrates as early as 1300 BCE the need to visualize information had driven the invention of representations that transformed the way information has been communicated and used.