ABSTRACT
Writing was invented independently three different times in three different areas on our planet: in the Near East, China, and Mesoamerica. The Near Eastern cuneiform script, created ca. 3200 BC in ancient Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq, was the first. It is also the only writing system the origins of which can be traced deep into prehistory (Schmandt-Besserat, 1996). This chapter presents tokens, the system of counters that preceded and led to writing. In particular, it discusses the appearance of tokens in early farming communities about 7500 BC, the evolution of the system over 4000 years, its transmutation into writing in the first cities, and finally, the use of abstraction to create numerals and phonetic signs. Finally, the chapter shows how the identification of tokens as the origin of writing challenged the previous pictographic theory.
