Homework is nothing new. Nearly 2,000 years ago, an Egyptian student was tasked with writing lines in Greek on a wax tablet.

The tablet was made out of blackened beeswax that had been poured into a wooden frame, says Peter Toth, a curator at the British Library in London, England. The beeswax turns a lighter color when scratched. The library will display the tablet this month for an exhibition on writing through the ages.

Although wax usually breaks down in humid air, Egypt’s dry climate preserved the tablet for millennia. The phrases the student wrote: “Accept advice from someone wise. It is not right to believe every friend of yours.”