Practice question · Multiple choice
Clay tokens sealed inside a hollow ball were made unreadable by the sealing, so scribes pressed each token's shape onto the outside. Why is that step the crucial one?
Hints
- Ask what the impressions on the outside were for, and what they made unnecessary.
- The tokens are still inside. Why would anyone stop putting them there?
Show the answer
A. The marks reproduced the information without the objects
Why
The impression duplicated the content and then replaced it, so the object became a sign and the ball became a tablet, writing arrives as a side effect of an accounting convenience. Denise Schmandt-Besserat's reconstruction is why the most consequential invention in history has no inventor and no moment.
Practise Mesopotamia and the First States
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