| White Elephant
20. (40). Archaeologists believe that counting large quantities began about 10,000 years ago. Early
farmers had to account for communally stored crops. Early counting systems involved small tokens
which represented farmers’ stores. In the area which is no
w southern Iraq, little figures shaped like
discs, balls, and pyramids were used in about 7500 B.C. to represent various holdings. Later, marks
which represented the figures were inscribed on clay tablets by use of a blunt reed to cut into the wet
clay. Still, the symbols were always connected with specific merchandise. Around 3000 B.C., people
began using clay tablets and a new accounting system which they perfected over the next 4,000 years. A
writing system called cuneiform, which consisted of wedge
–
shaped symbols, was also invented. At the
same time, other cultures were independently developing numbering and writing systems. Soon
philosophers began to discover than nature wassubject to laws which could be expressed with
numbers.Tokens are …
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