The Earliest Precursor of Writing.

Denise Schmandt-Besserat. Scientific American. June 1977, Vol. 238, No. 6, p. 50-58.

«Following the unwritten, oral tradition of the great bankers, in southwestern Asia there was a golden age, where money was neither gold nor silver, and where peace and responsibility were the rule».

Agustí Chalaux (1911-2006).

Foreword.

Text of the article.

Illustrations and tables:

• Clay tokens from Susa.
• EGG-Shaped hollow tablet.
• Spherical bulla.
• Bulla from Susa.
• Sites.
• Geographical distribution of tokens.
• Clustering of sites.
• Table of tokens.
  • Sphere.
  • Disk.
  • Cone.
  • Tetraedre.
  • Biconoid.
  • Ovoid.
  • Cylinder.
  • Triangle.
  • Rectangle.
  • Vessel.
  • Animal.
  • Miscellaneous.
• X ray.
• Tablets from Uruk.

Bibliography:

• An Operational Device in Mesopotamian Bureaucracy. A. Leo Oppneheim a Journal of Near Eastern Studies, volume 17 pages 121-128; 1958.
• Glyptique Susienne. Pierre Amiet a Mémoires de la Délégation archéologique en Iran, volume 43; 1972.
• An Archaic Recording System and the Origin of Writing. Denise Schmandt-Besserat a Syro-Mesopotamian Studies, volume 1, number 2; July 1977.

See also:

• Schmandt-Besserat, Denise. «Reckoning Before Writing», in Archaeology. May/June 1979, Vol. 32, No. 3, p. 22-31.
• Friberg, Jöran. «Numbers and Measures in the Earliest Written Records», in «Scientific American». February 1984. Volume 250. Number 2. Pages 110-118.
• Schmandt-Besserat, Denise. «Two Precursors of Writing: Plain and Complex Tokens», in The Origins of Writing / edited by Wayne M. Senner. 1991: 27-41.

License: © Denise Schmandt-Besserat.
Text proceeding from web of the Finaly School (http://finaly.org).