Actually there is one old distributed ledger I was told about when discussing what is money or a blockchain: the stone currency historically used on the Yap islands.
It started out by using some large distinctive stones and adding markings to them. Additional markings and additional stones could be added. A key property was that all the information was public and known to the islanders, so if someone were to fake a marking or forge a stone it would immediately be invalidated. The oral recounting of the stones was a literal gossip protocol.
As the story goes, a stone was lost to sea during a storm. Nothing changed as everyone remembered it and either already agreed what was on it, or came to consensus. The physical presence/existence of the stone wasn't needed at all.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rai_stones