Reviewed by Cigdem Solas Concordia University
Before Writing is a fascinating book on the evolution of communication in the Near East between 8000-3000 B.C. Much more than that, it is a book on accounting history itself. It argues that, writing was not, as previously thought, a sudden and spontaneous invention; the alphabet was not of divine origin as was believed until 1700s; nor did scripts start with picture writing as was put forward during the enlightenment period. Rather, writing emerged from manipulation of counting symbols.
Denise Schmandt-Besserat presents a unique hypothesis: Mesopottamian writing emerged from a counting device which existed at least two hundred years earlier than pictographies. She argues that tallies, tokens and pictographic tablets represent three distinct phases in the evolution of data processing [p. 166]. The emergence of tallies and plain and complex tokens reflects the needs of different societies and their specific lifestyles, economics and social organizations. The development of these societies and their economies and social needs influenced each phase of prehistoric counting and accounting devices or reckoning technology.
The first chapter of the book introduces us to previous theories and arguments about the evolution of writing as well as introducing its argument on the subject. The following chapters introduce the token system chronologically and geographically, tracing its evolution in prehistory. Two of these chapters distinguish between plain and complex tokens and depict their evolution with beautifully photographed illustrations.
The fourth and fifth chapters provide insight into the do-mestic and public uses of tokens, including their purpose and storage as related to the economic and social changes occuring in the particular society under examination. The analysis estab-lishes that storage of tokens created a need for marking signs on clay envelopes, which was a new trend in communication and an immediate step preceding writing itself.
While Chapter Six introduces us to the routine documenta-tion of the impressed tablets (classifying and making available knowledge as a procedure), the strengths of the book are to be found in the remaining chapters. Those chapters introduce us to the author’s revolutionary findings and, in particular, the fasci-nating interpretation of her findings on accounting.
Chapter Seven presents the author’s classification system of the tokens. In this chapter, the author shows that tokens were concept symbols and, as such, conveyed quantitative as well as qualitative information. There were various types of tokens each of which carried discrete meaning. For example, the cone represented a small measure of grain and the sphere represented a large measure of grain. On the other hand, the number of tokens represented quantitative information about the goods, like two spheres or three cones. However, they always represented economic data of some kind, whether agricultural or manufactured goods. Even the repertory of shapes was systematized. Always cones signified a particular measure of grain. However, it should be stressed that this was an open classification system because new signs were added whenever needed. As well, it was flexible enough to manipulate economic information by facilitating the functions of addition and subtraction. The entire system was based on one-to-one correspondence.
In Chapter Eight, the author argues that the development of token systems and accounting was not commerce-related, but emerged as an outcome of the changes in the social structure and economies of respective societies. For example, in egalitarian societies, individuals had an equal share of resources and tokens were used to measure and count units for farming and grain hoarding. Plain tokens satisfied these needs and basically represented products of the farm. Later the emergence of ranked societies fundamentally changed the relationship between tokens and the needs of particular social groups in the society. Suddenly, tokens became devices of rudimentary accounting rather than counting, and complex tokens came to represent goods manufactured in the city. In ranked societies, temples acted as a sort of central location where individuals made offerings and where collections were redistributed.
At this stage, the function of writing served the purpose of keeping account of the resources collected at the temple or the palace and redistribution of this collection. Further, writing as a form of social control came into practice. Record keeping became imperative to provide information about the community’s pooled surpluses and their redistribution. Unquestionably, the temple needed to control both functions, and therefore used tablets to record receipts. Tablet records contained all the necessary information of a receipt. The change from ranked society to the formation of the state brought about new social and economic needs. The state needed a system of continual resource collection (such as taxes) and needed to calculate the cost of the monuments which were built. Both kinds of tokens met those needs very well.
After rationalizing the social and economic functions of to-kens and the development of communication, the author ex-plains three major phases in the evolution of counting: one-to-one correspondence, concrete counting, and abstract counting. She postulates that writing was the direct outcome of abstract counting, and suggests that accountants of Uruk IVa themselves can be credited for devising the two types of signs: numerals (symbols encoding abstract numbers) and pictographs (expressing commodities) [p. 192].
The book concludes by showing how tokens and tablets il-lustrated and proved the interconnections between social struc-ture, cognitive skills, economy, technology, mathematics and communication during 8000-3000 B.C.
Before Writing is indeed a very interesting and valuable book which makes a major contribution to the field and is of particular interest to those in the history of accounting. Before Writing deserves considerable success.
