Of Clay Pebbles, Hollow Clay Balls, and Writing: A Sumerian View

Abstract

Small regularly shaped clay objects and hollow clay bullae have come to recent attention as possible precursors to the invention of writing in the ancient Near East. The interpretation of these objects as accounting devices has found primary textual support in cuneiform documents excavated in ancient Nuzi which are considerably later than the objects. This article provides documentation for the use of such objects in earlier times, in Sumer, where writing is thought to have originated. The relevance of the manipulation of such calculi to the prehistory of the cuneiform system of numbers is explored. A differentiation in usage between curviform and cuneiform numerals beginning in pre-Sargonic times and continuing into the Ur III period is seen as a reflection of actual use of the clay calculi in accounting, and bureaucratic practice is inferred from the representational distinction. Sumero-Akkadian lexicons which apparently list clay calculi among other bookkeeping devices are interpreted as showing that the Sumerian word for "clay calculus" was /imna/, "clay stone." In the light of this new evidence for the use of the small clay objects, the theory which sees them as antecedent to script is assessed. The hypothesis is deemed unjustified on chronological and geographical grounds, imprecise or incorrect in terms of many of the purely formal comparisons which have been made, inadequate as an explanation of the appearance of writing, and based on an error in classification.