Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

University of Texas Press

Visit our Partner Page See all our books
book: How Writing Came About
Book
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

How Writing Came About

Language: English
Published/Copyright: 1996

About this book

Top 100 Books on Science, American Scientist, 2001

In 1992, the University of Texas Press published Before Writing, Volume I: From Counting to Cuneiform and Before Writing, Volume II: A Catalog of Near Eastern Tokens. In these two volumes, Denise Schmandt-Besserat set forth her groundbreaking theory that the cuneiform script invented in the Near East in the late fourth millennium B.C.—the world's oldest known system of writing—derived from an archaic counting device.

How Writing Came About draws material from both volumes to present Schmandt-Besserat's theory for a wide public and classroom audience. Based on the analysis and interpretation of a selection of 8,000 tokens or counters from 116 sites in Iran, Iraq, the Levant, and Turkey, it documents the immediate precursor of the cuneiform script.

Author / Editor information

Denise Schmandt-Besserat is Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Reviews

Discoveries in the history of writing are rare, but Denise Schmandt-Besserat made one in realizing that phonetic writing in the West descends not from pictography, a view repeated everywhere, but from abstract, nonphonetic, mostly noniconographic accounting tokens used in Neolithic farming communities of the Near East beginning from about 8000 B.C. A condensation of volume I of Before Writing ...this book is a perfect production, utterly lucid, thoughtfully illustrated, and thoroughly convincing.
— American Journal of Archaeology

Topics

  • Publicly Available

    Frontmatter

    i
    Download PDF
  • Publicly Available

    Contents

    vii
    Download PDF
  • Publicly Available

    Preface

    xi
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    INTRODUCTION Tokens, a New Theory

    1
    Download PDF
  • PART ONE The Evidence
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER ONE What Are Tokens ?

    15
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER TWO Where Tokens Were Handled CHAPTER TWO and Who Used Them

    29
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER THREE Strings of Tokens and Envelopes

    39
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER FOUR Impressed Tablets

    55
    Download PDF
  • PART TWO The Interpretation
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER FIVE The Evolution of Symbols in Prehistory

    89
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER SIX Tokens: The Socioeconomic Implications

    101
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER SEVEN Counting and the Emergence of Writing

    111
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER EIGHT Conclusions: Tokens, Their Role in Prehistory and Their Contribution to Archaeology

    123
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    PART THREE The Artifacts

    127
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Notes

    159
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Glossary

    183
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Index

    185
    Download PDF

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
February 27, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9780292799844
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.7560/777040
eBook ISBN: 9780292799844
Audience(s) for this book
For a non-specialist adult audience
Downloaded on 5.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.7560/777040/html
Scroll to top button