ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes what the prehistoric administrative technologies such as tokens and seals may disclose on the origin and evolution of the exemplary redistribution economy which developed in antiquity in the land that was to become Elam. Ancient Near Eastern art of the 4th and 3rd millennium BC glorifies the temple redistribution economy. A farming redistribution economy was an extraordinary accomplishment in human cooperation. It was nothing less than the second greatest economic event in the evolution of mankind. The sites of Susiana and Deh Luran illustrate with surprising clarity the evolution of administrative technologies to implement the redistribution economy in Greater Susiana. Farming and the corollary redistribution economy prospered in the entire Near East in the 7th millennium BC. The ancient Near Eastern redistribution economy should be viewed as a major landmark in the history of mankind. Its significance and complexity brought humans to count and discover the world of numbers.
