The Near East

Starting about 7500 BC, from the Eastern Mediterranean coast to the confines of present-day Iran, tokens served as counters to keep track of agricultural products. The small objects were modeled in clay in striking shapes, each standing for a specific unit of a commodity (Figure 1). The tokens reflected an archaic counting system called concrete counting, which was characterized by the use of special numerations, or

Figure 1 Tokens from Uruk, present day Iraq. Each token stands for units of goods such as one jar of oil, one animal, one measure of grain, or one length of textile.

Sequences of number words, to count different commodities. For example sheep or goat, were counted with tokens in the shape of cylinders that symbolized specifically the animal numeration, and small and large baskets of grain were counted with cones and spheres that stood for the grain numeration (see Asia, West: Archaeology of the Near East: The Levant).

About 3500 BC, the budding Mesopotamian state administration created round clay envelopes in order to keep together in storage the tokens representing outstanding debts. This innovation prompted the remarkable changes described below:

1.  Tokens were impressed on the surface of the envelopes to show how many counters of what shape were included inside. (Figure 2) The token impressions reduced the three-dimensional counters to two-dimensional signs. Wedges and circular signs replaced the cones and sphere tokens to symbolize numbers of baskets of grain.

2.  The token impressions were laid out on the surface of the envelopes according to the following rules

A.  signs of the same kind were entered on a line.

B.  the number of units of merchandise were shown in one-to-one correspondence. For example, three small baskets of grain were shown by three wedges.

C.  The lines of signs representing greater units were placed above those of lesser units. For example, a line of circular signs representing large baskets of grain was inscribed above a line of wedges representing small baskets.

3.  About 3200 BC, tablets - solid clay balls - replaced the hollow clay envelopes (Figure 3). The signs impressed on the archaic tablets were the same as those impressed on envelopes.

They also followed the same rules of one-to-one correspondence; the arrangement of signs in lines; and the hierarchical order of the lines.

4. About 3100 BC, a reed stylus with a prismatic tip was used to trace the outline of tokens instead of impressing the actual tokens.

In the Near East, therefore, it took writing 4000 years to achieve its format. The earliest signs of the archaic impressed and incised script derived their form from tokens. They were inscribed on clay tablets that derived from clay envelopes. The use of a reed stylus presaged the stylus with a triangular tip, adopted about 2800 BC, which created the characteristic nail-shape of the Mesopotamian cuneiform script. This format, with only minor changes, continued as long as the cuneiform script was used in the Near East.