Archaic Bookkeeping brings together the most current

scholarship on the earliest true writing system in human

history. Invented by the Babylonians at the end of the

fourth millennium B.C., this script, called proto-cuneiform,

survives in the form of clay tablets that have until now

posed formidable barriers to interpretation. Many tablets,

excavated in fragments from ancient dump sites, lack a clear

context. In addition, the purpose of the earliest tablets

was not to record language but to monitor the administration

of local economies by means of a numerical system.

Using the latest philological research and new methods

of computer analysis, the authors have for the first time

deciphered much of the numerical information. In

reconstructing both the social context and the function of

the notation, they consider how the development of our

earliest written records affected patterns of thought, the

concept of number, and the administration of household

economies. Complete with computer-generated graphics keyed

to the discussion and reproductions of all documents referred

to in the text, Archaic Bookkeeping will interest

specialists in Near Eastern civilizations, ancient history,

the history of science and mathematics, and cognitive

psychology.