For decades, scholars of antiquity assumed that the cuneiform script of ancient Sumer—widely considered the world's earliest writing system—sprang from a sudden burst of creative invention, likely intended to record royal decrees or religious epics. However, excavations in the mid-twentieth century unearthed thousands of small, geometric clay tokens dating back to 8000 BCE. These tokens, representing specific quantities of agricultural goods like grain or sheep, were stored in hollow clay spheres called envelopes to secure transactions. To identify the contents without breaking the spheres, accountants began pressing the tokens into the wet clay exterior before sealing them inside. Over time, these two-dimensional impressions rendered the physical tokens redundant; scribes realized they could dispense with the three-dimensional tokens entirely and simply draw the symbols directly onto flat clay tablets. This evolutionary pathway suggests that the primary driver behind the invention of writing was not artistic expression or political propaganda, but rather the mundane administrative necessity of managing economic transactions in increasingly complex urban societies.
Which of the following statements best expresses the main idea of the passage?
- The invention of writing evolved from simple agricultural accounting systems rather than sudden political or creative innovations.Cevap
- BHuman civilizations have always relied on complex symbolic communication to record their history and manage their societies.
- CAncient Mesopotamian accountants sealed geometric clay tokens inside hollow clay spheres to secure transactions.
- DCuneiform writing was originally created by Sumerian kings to catalog royal decrees and religious epics.