Ancient bookkeeping system survived well after invention of writing, UA-led team concludes
Small clay tokens of different shapes were a simple but effective way of tracking livestock and commodity transactions during the Assyrian empire.
AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG in Turkey directed by a University of Akron professor has found evidence that an ancient form of bookkeeping using small clay tokens continued to be used at least 2,000 years after the advent of writing.
The analysis, based on artifacts excavated over 17 summers at the Ziyaret Tepe site in southeastern Turkey, contradicts scientists’ earlier conclusion that the tokens quickly faded from use as humans began using reeds to make inscriptions on clay tablets.
Timothy Matney, Ph.D., professor of anthropology and classical studies, has directed the Ziyaret Tepe Archaeological Expedition since it began in 1997. His international team of collaborators includes researchers from England, Germany and Turkey.
A report on their finding appears in the June issue of the Cambridge Archaeological Journal.
Accounting with tokens
During the time of the Assyrian empire, about 900 to 600 B.C., Ziyaret Tepe was the site of the city of Tushan. The researchers believe the simple tokens, whose varying shapes represented different items, were used to account for animals or grain that farmers brought there to sell, and also perhaps for commodities such as oil and wood.
Other artifacts recovered at the site indicate that the information the tokens represented was ultimately inscribed onto cuneiform tablets. Cuneiform is the earliest form of writing, developed around 3,000 B.C.
“In the Assyrian period, a very tiny percentage of the people actually knew how to read or write,” Matney says. Using tokens was a simple but effective way to keep track of commodities that needed to be moved around – something like jotting something on a sticky note that later is entered into a computer.
“In a way, you might consider it a form of shorthand,” Matney says.
This summer is the last for the Ziyaret Tepe Archaeological Expedition. Completion of the Illisu Dam on the Tigris River is expected next year. Eventually, Ziyaret Tepe and other ancient sites in southeastern Turkey will be covered by a lake.
Read more about Dr. Matney’s research on his blog.
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Media contact: Roger Mezger, 330-730-4215 or rmezger@uakron.edu.