NEST 319 Lecture 14: Lecture 14 Notes
20 Dec 2018
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Cylinder seal vs. clay tablet --> the tablet has impressed symbols (could be economic symbols), as well as signs that are incised and ingrained (represents numbers/quantities) Clay tokens --> appears as early in the neolithic period. Was originally thought to be amulets + gaming pieces. Now they are considered to be counting devices --> basic way of keeping track of things. If you have a certain number of goods, you can use circles to represent two quantities, or other shapes to represent more numbers/values. Clay balls/bulla --> 3500 bce (in the middle of the uruk period) Clay tokens were still used, but when they are transported, a bulla is. Clay tokens were still used, but when they are transported, a bulla is used to put the tokens inside it. Ensuring that the transaction for shipments are secure --> thus people would not tamper with the tokens within it. Shows how intricate the exchange of goods are becoming.
