ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the first attempts to supplement human memory with material aids to recollection. The origins of external record-keeping probably lay in the adoption of aspects of the landscape, or particular objects within it, as memory devices: more specifically, in the use of natural objects to assist with counting. Use of counting aids demonstrates an understanding of representation: a major human cognitive development. Once this cognitive leap had been made, people will have become aware that counting aids can also provide records of completed counts. This chapter examines the use of tallies (marks or notches made on bones or wooden sticks) as well as records made by tying knots. It considers how such records supported needs for memory and evidence, and how people will have discovered that some forms of representation offer higher levels of persistence than others. It also discusses the first moves towards methods of recording that allowed different kinds of counted goods to be categorized; the shift from natural objects to human-made recording artefacts; and the transition beyond records of counts to records of transactions. In Mesopotamia, perhaps as early as 10,000 years ago, clay artefacts that archaeologists call ‘tokens’ were used to record simple transactions in agricultural communities.
