From Tokens to Cuneiform Clay Tablets: Traces of Accounting in the Invention of Writing

About 10.000 years ago, human didn’t know how to write yet, but was aware that he shouldn’t trust his memory. With the Neolithic period, man has given up the hunter-gatherer life style by passing permanent settlement and become aware of the fact that he can lead his life with the product obtained from the soil. Over time he produced more than his needs and started first commercial activities by trading them. The information kept in memory of the parties related with these commercial activities were sometimes incompatible and born disaggrements and there arose a need to record the debit-credit relationships. It has been the subject of many studies that which tools are used by human beings, who need to be patient for the invention of writing and numbers approximately 5000 years in order to follow and record these mentioned commercial activities. In this study, the archaic accounting system, which has been used since the Neolithic period and subsisted 5000 years round, will be traced. Detailed information about Tokens -which form the basis of this system- will be given and how the Tokens were transformed into the first written texts transferred to clay tablets over time will be explained supported by archaeological evidences. It will be tried to reveal the driving force of accounting in the invention of this inconceivable discovery in short writing, which deeply affects the history of mankind, starts the historic ages by closing the prehistoric ages