Numerous scholars have presented evidence indicating that tokens, often made of clay and presented in various significant sizes, markings and shapes, were used to keep accounts of financial and other transactions or accounts of grain, jars of oil, or units of land. These tokens, which appeared in such cultures as that of the Sumerians and other Near Eastern peoples, represented a first step toward the development of a written language as well as a system of numerical record-keeping of a permanent or quasi-permanent nature. As a necessary precursor to the development of a more complex written language tokens emerged as people turned from a life of hunting and gathering to a life and socio-economic system based on agriculture and, later, trade. As tokens and their various shapes, forms and markings became standardized, and as cities were developed, these symbols took on added meaning and importance. Further, as social and economic complexity increased, token accounting and record-keeping systems served as the basis for the development of more complex written language and symbols.
The purpose of this report is to identify the significance of tokens, defined as small geometric clay objects (e.g., cylinders, cones, spheres, etc.) found throughout the Near East from about 8000 B.C. until the development of writing. Based upon a qualitative review of relevant literature, this report will demonstrate that these small pieces of clay and other materials served not only as the basis of rudimentary accounting systems and as a precursor for the development of both linguistic and mathematical writing, but as the foundation upon which more and more complex systems of data storage would be built. The study of tokens as evidence of the growing sophistication of ancient civilizations with respect to writing, accounting, mathematics, and data storage illustrates man's mastery of complex communication methods.
As Krishlansky, Geary and O...