ABSTRACT
This chapter opens with an account of early recording practices in Egypt, where writing techniques were adopted at roughly the same period as in Mesopotamia (Chapter 3), and it then considers developments that occurred at later dates in the Minoan and Mycenaean societies of the Aegean basin, in early China, in Mesoamerica, and in Inka Peru. While most of these are regions where major developments – typically revolving around the emergence of writing – occurred more or less independently at different times, record-making and record-keeping in the Aegean were more obviously influenced by techniques that had previously been adopted elsewhere. The chapter also discusses connections between innovative recording practices and the evolution of new states characterized by rapidly growing populations, urbanization, social stratification, and the appropriation of resources by elites. These emerging states needed new control mechanisms as they made the transition from small-scale to more complex societies; developments in record-making and record-keeping allowed ruling elites to co-ordinate an expanding range of activities, control the production and movement of resources, and monitor the performance of labour.
