Before Writing: Volume 1: From Counting to Cuneiform

A fascinating book on the origins of writing. Before Writing gives a new perspective on the evolution of communication. It points out that when writing began in Mesopotamia it was not as previously thought a sudden and spontaneous invention. Instead it was the outgrowth of many thousands of years worth of experience at manipulating symbols. In Volume I: From Counting to Cuneiform Denise Schmandt-Besserat describes how in about 8000 B.C. coinciding with the rise of agriculture a system of counters or tokens appeared in the Near East. These tokenssmall geometrically shaped objects made of clayrepresented various units of goods and were used to count and account for them. The token system was a breakthrough in data processing and communication that ultimately led to the invention of writing about 3100 B.C. Through a study of archaeological and epigraphic evidence Schmandt-Besserat traces how the Sumerian cuneiform script the first writing system emerged from a counting device. In Volume II: A Catalog of Near Eastern Tokens Schmandt-Besserat presents the primary data on which she bases her theories. These data consist of several thousand tokens catalogued by country archaeological site and token types and subtypes. The information also includes the chronology stratigraphy museum ownership accession or field number references to previous publications material and size of the artifacts. Line drawings and photographs illustrate the various token types.