Tools of the Trade
Accounting Tokens as an Alternative to Text in the Cuneiform World
Dados Bibliográficos
| ID | 19595239 |
|---|---|
| Autores | Lucy E Bennison-Chapman (0000-0003-1978-942X, autor correspondente) |
| Ano | 2023 |
| Volume | 390 |
| Páginas | 209-243 |
| Data de publicação | 2023-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Sim |
| Open Access | Não |
| Tipo | ARTICLE |
| Periódico | Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research (JOURNAL) |
| Identificadores do periódico | ISSN: 2769-3589 • E-ISSN: 2769-3600 |
| Editora | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/727776 |
| OpenAlex | W4388501692 |
| Idioma | EN |
| Citações recebidas | 1 |
| Referências citadas | 29 |
Small, geometric-shaped clay objects are a common find at settlements across West Asia. They were often overlooked in the past, in favor of more enigmatic clay finds such as figurines, seals, and tablets. Denise Schmandt-Besserat’s seminal work (1992) brought clay objects to the fore, arguing they were mnemonic accounting tokens that evolved directly into the characters of cuneiform script and thus were replaced by writing at the end of the 4th millennium b.c. Evidence from excavations across West Asia increasingly demonstrates that the evolutionary narrative of writing as replacing tokens is too simplistic. Various pathways to complex administration were taken. A review of the evidence demonstrates that the advent of writing did not lead to the abandonment of prehistoric bureaucratic technologies. Tokens continue to be a crucial administrative aid at most sites—used along with clay tags, bullae, seals, sealings, and written texts—into the 1st millennium b.c. This article considers how and why nonliterate bureaucratic technologies remained useful tools of daily life in West Asia for as long as cuneiform was the dominant form of written script. It proves that the theorized trajectory of written texts replacing tokens in accounting is a gross oversimplification of the situation of administration in the early historic period
Ancient history · Art · Bureaucracy · Central asia · Cuneiform · Literature · Narrative · Parallels · Political science · Politics · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Ancient Near East History · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Engineering · History · Law
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| Obras citantes distintas | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citações por ano | 1 |
| Intervalo de citações | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Velocidade de citação | recent |
| Altamente citado | Não |
| Tipos de citação | Neutras: 1 |