Found it. I wrote up something back in December 2017. Found it on my "Test and Development" blog. Never quite finished it, apparently.
I updated my remarks, updated one of the Wikipedia excerpts, added some links, and formatted the post using the "two-color dialog" background style I sometimes use.
| Quoted sources | My commentary |
|---|
AncientScripts:
The Sumerians were one of the earliest urban societies to emerge in the world, in Southern Mesopotamia more than 5000 years ago. They developed a writing system whose wedge-shaped strokes would influence the style of scripts in the same geographical area for the next 3000 years...
The Sumerians were one of the earliest urban societies to emerge in the world, in Southern Mesopotamia more than 5000 years ago. They developed a writing system whose wedge-shaped strokes would influence the style of scripts in the same geographical area for the next 3000 years...
The excerpt takes us back a good 5000 years to the Sumerians. Theirs was an urban society with a writing system. Yesterday, Carroll Quigley pointed out that civilizations have writing and cities, but "Neolithic Garden cultures" did not. It would appear that the Sumerians developed writing and civilization.
It is actually possible to trace the long road of the invention of the Sumerian writing system. For 5000 years before the appearance of writing in Mesopotamia, there were small clay objects in abstract shapes, called clay tokens, that were apparently used for counting agricultural and manufactured goods.
This takes us back another 5000 years -- 10,000 years all told -- to the invention of clay tokens, a counting technology used for business purposes.
Cuneiform script (Wikipedia):
The cuneiform script was developed from pictographic proto-writing in the late 4th millennium BC, stemming from the near eastern token system used for accounting. These tokens were in use from the 9th millennium BC ...
The cuneiform script was developed from pictographic proto-writing in the late 4th millennium BC, stemming from the near eastern token system used for accounting. These tokens were in use from the 9th millennium BC ...
"The 4th millennium BC spanned the years 4000 through 3001 BC."
"The 9th millennium BC spanned the years 9000 through 8001 BC."
I'm thinkin that the "token system used for accounting" is the same as the previously noted "clay token" system used for counting. The dates and the purposes suggest as much. This would mean, then, that between 10,000 years ago and 5000 years ago, Sumer moved from a clay token system, to proto-writing, to cuneiform script. And the earliest of those was already used for accounting.
There was accounting before there was writing. This suggests that business activity created the need for record-keeping, and the result was cuneiform. So the answer is yes, writing developed as a way to keep track of business data.
And if we go with the notion that "writing + cities = civilization" then the result was not only cuneiform script, but also civilization.
Economic activity makes the world go round.
"The 9th millennium BC spanned the years 9000 through 8001 BC."
I'm thinkin that the "token system used for accounting" is the same as the previously noted "clay token" system used for counting. The dates and the purposes suggest as much. This would mean, then, that between 10,000 years ago and 5000 years ago, Sumer moved from a clay token system, to proto-writing, to cuneiform script. And the earliest of those was already used for accounting.
There was accounting before there was writing. This suggests that business activity created the need for record-keeping, and the result was cuneiform. So the answer is yes, writing developed as a way to keep track of business data.
And if we go with the notion that "writing + cities = civilization" then the result was not only cuneiform script, but also civilization.
Economic activity makes the world go round.
AncientScripts:
As a spoken language, Sumerian died out around the 18th century BCE, but continued as a "learned" written language (much like Latin was during the Middle Ages in Europe). In this way, Sumerian was used continually until the 1st century CE, making it one of the longest used writing system in history.
As a spoken language, Sumerian died out around the 18th century BCE, but continued as a "learned" written language (much like Latin was during the Middle Ages in Europe). In this way, Sumerian was used continually until the 1st century CE, making it one of the longest used writing system in history.
"... much like Latin was during the Middle Ages", they say. That's the kind of comparison Arnold Toynbee would make. Cycle of Civilization stuff. Recurrences. History repeats itself -- or no, not exactly, but it rhymes.
Prehistoric numerals:
Early systems of counting using tally marks appear in the Upper Paleolithic. The first more complex systems develop in the Ancient Near East together with the development of early writing out of proto-writing systems.
Numerals originally developed from the use of tally marks as a counting aid, with the oldest examples being about 35,000 to 25,000 years old.
Counting aids like tally marks become more sophisticated in the Near Eastern Neolithic, developing into various types of proto-writing. The Cuneiform script develops out of proto-writing associated with keeping track of goods during the Chalcolithic.
Early systems of counting using tally marks appear in the Upper Paleolithic. The first more complex systems develop in the Ancient Near East together with the development of early writing out of proto-writing systems.
Numerals originally developed from the use of tally marks as a counting aid, with the oldest examples being about 35,000 to 25,000 years old.
Counting aids like tally marks become more sophisticated in the Near Eastern Neolithic, developing into various types of proto-writing. The Cuneiform script develops out of proto-writing associated with keeping track of goods during the Chalcolithic.
"The Cuneiform script develops out of proto-writing associated with keeping track of goods". Again, economic ties. The development of writing was driven by self-interest, by the needs of people trying to make money.
Upper Paleolithic:
The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic, Late Stone Age) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), roughly coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity and before the advent of agriculture.
The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic, Late Stone Age) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), roughly coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity and before the advent of agriculture.
10,000 years ago: Modern behavior (and human nature) but as yet no agriculture.
Proto-writing:
The transition from proto-writing to the earliest fully developed writing systems took place in the late 4th to early 3rd millennium BCE in the Fertile Crescent. The Kish tablet, dated to 3500 BCE, reflects the stage of "proto-cuneiform", when what would become the cuneiform script of Sumer was still in the proto-writing stage. By the end of the 4th millennium BCE, this symbol system had evolved into a method of keeping accounts ...
This was gradually augmented with pictographic writing using a sharp stylus to indicate what was being counted. The transitional stage to a writing system proper takes place in the Jemdet Nasr period (31st to 30th centuries BCE).
The transition from proto-writing to the earliest fully developed writing systems took place in the late 4th to early 3rd millennium BCE in the Fertile Crescent. The Kish tablet, dated to 3500 BCE, reflects the stage of "proto-cuneiform", when what would become the cuneiform script of Sumer was still in the proto-writing stage. By the end of the 4th millennium BCE, this symbol system had evolved into a method of keeping accounts ...
This was gradually augmented with pictographic writing using a sharp stylus to indicate what was being counted. The transitional stage to a writing system proper takes place in the Jemdet Nasr period (31st to 30th centuries BCE).
"The 30th century BC ... lasted from the year 3000 BC to 2901 BC."
Okay: By 3500 BC (say 5500 years ago) it was proto-writing. By 3000 BC (5000 years ago) it was a fully developed method of keeping accounts, and over the next 100 years or so it became "a writing system proper".
Okay: By 3500 BC (say 5500 years ago) it was proto-writing. By 3000 BC (5000 years ago) it was a fully developed method of keeping accounts, and over the next 100 years or so it became "a writing system proper".
Again: The economy drives civilization.
EDIT:
See also The accumulation of wealth gives rise to civilization -- one that I actually did finish.
The long, slow end of the learning curve:
| 200,000 years ago: | Homo sapiens | |
| 50,000 years ago: | Intelligent life | |
| 35,000 years ago: | Tally marks as a counting aid | |
| 10,000 years ago: | Clay Tokens used for accounting | |
| 5,500 years ago: | Sumerian proto-writing | |
| 5,000 years ago: | The Sumerian writing system |
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