Writing and Accounting

Key Concept 1.3 =Importance of laws, literature, and systems of record keeping

How was writing and accounting used?

• support for state authority came with the invention of writing

• regarded as a gift from the gods• people without writing viewed it as

something magical• literacy defined elite status – enormous

prestige if you had the ability to read– since writing could be learned, it allowed

for some commoners to join the circle of the literate

How was writing and accounting used?

• Writing was used as: –Propaganda–Celebrating the deeds of kings – Used commonly in these two from by

the Egyptians and the Maya

Writing in Mesopotamia

• Mesopotamia – – served as an accounting function = who paid

taxes, who owed the temple, payment to workers

– documentation strengthened the bureaucracy.

– Calendars were precise – contained information of when rituals should be performed

• Hammurabi’s law code – sets up divisions between class and gender

Can writing be controlled?

• Writing, like religion, was hard to control – Gave rise to literature and philosophy…– which led to Astronomy and Mathematics– History went from oral traditions being

passed down to being written

Discussion Question:Writing was a major contributor to social and political growth/conflict – rulers always sought to control -why?

Different systems of record keeping:

• 1. Sumer = Cuneifrom – wedge shaped, on clay tablets, represented objects, ideas, sounds. 1st written language, base for Babylonian and Assryian Script

Different systems of record keeping:

• 2. Egypt = Hieroglyphs – signs that represent words and consonants, no vowels or syllables. Every day use

Different systems of record keeping:

• 3. Andes = Quipu – knotted cords = used for business and administrative purposes, numerical data. Widely used in the Inca empire

Different systems of record keeping:

• 4. Indus River Valley – 400 pictographic symbols – led to the Dravidan language currently spoken in southern India

Different systems of record keeping:

• 5. China = oracle bones, pictographs. Inscribed on shells, bones of animals, direct ancestor of contemporary Chinese characters

Different systems of record keeping:

• 6. Olmec = signs that represent sounds and words, system using dots and bards. Used to record names and deeds of rulers and shamans, battle and astronomical data.

Evolution of

Cuneiform – from

tokens to symbols