How Writing Came About

<p><b>Top 100 Books on Science American Scientist 2001</b></p> <p>In 1992 the University of Texas Press published <i>Before Writing Volume I: From Counting to Cuneiform</i> and <i>Before Writing Volume II: A Catalog of Near Eastern Tokens.</i> In these two volumes Denise Schmandt-Besserat set forth her groundbreaking theory that the cuneiform script invented in the Near East in the late fourth millennium B.C.-the world's oldest known system of writing-derived from an archaic counting device.</p> <p><i>How Writing Came About</i> draws material from both volumes to present Schmandt-Besserat's theory for a wide public and classroom audience. Based on the analysis and interpretation of a selection of 8000 tokens or counters from 116 sites in Iran Iraq the Levant and Turkey it documents the immediate precursor of the cuneiform script.</p>