

The earliest precursor of writing (1977) - walterbell
http://en.finaly.org/index.php/The_earliest_precursor_of_writing

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immediatedelay
Tokens and bullae are fascinating pieces of early human economics, but the
core of Schmandt-Besserat's theory -- the idea that certain tokens developed
into carvings of words and concepts -- is widely discounted by archaeologists
today.

For one example of why, consider the earliest depiction of the word for sheep:
a circle with a cross. Sheep were one of the largest commodities in
Mesopotamian trade, and yet only a handful of tokens matching that crossed-
disk shape have ever been discovered. If transactions involving sheep were
taking place daily, they should be among the most plentiful of tokens. These
token systems are an ingenious human invention, but they should be seen as the
precursors to mathematical accounting, not writing.

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nrkn
But didn't most writing systems evolve from accounting systems?

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gumby
Chinese writing is pretty likely to have come from deviation (dropping turtle
shells into fires and interpreting the cracks).

Not sure of the origin of mesoamerican writing.

Middle eastern writing's origin (motivation) is also unclear.

