Knuth is worth quoting in full, so here is the very first paragraph of Ancient Babylonian Algorithms (1972) by Donald E. Knuth:
One of the ways to help make computer science respectable is to show that it is deeply rooted in history, not just a short-lived phenomenon. Therefore it is natural to turn to the earliest surviving documents which deal with computation, and to study how people approached the subject nearly 4000 years ago. Archeological expeditions in the Middle East have unearthed a large number of clay tablets which contain mathematical calculations, and we shall see that these tablets give many interesting clues about the life of early "computer scientists".
One of the ways to help make computer science respectable is to show that it is deeply rooted in history, not just a short-lived phenomenon. Therefore it is natural to turn to the earliest surviving documents which deal with computation, and to study how people approached the subject nearly 4000 years ago. Archeological expeditions in the Middle East have unearthed a large number of clay tablets which contain mathematical calculations, and we shall see that these tablets give many interesting clues about the life of early "computer scientists".