Chapter 10: Tokens Survived Writing by Seven Thousand Years
If tokens were proto-writing—precursors to cuneiform that became obsolete once writing developed—they should have disappeared after 3100 BC.
They did not.
The Neo-Assyrian Evidence
MacGinnis and colleagues documented 462 tokens at Ziyaret Tepe in southeastern Turkey, dating to the Neo-Assyrian period (882-611 BC).
"Even as writing developed there is no condition that writing would necessarily be superior to tokens in every respect. There may indeed be ways in which tokens were a more flexible and easier system than writing."
—MacGinnis et al. (2014), p. 289
Tokens continued in use for seven thousand years after writing was invented.
Why Would Tokens Persist?
If tokens and writing served the same function (record-keeping), writing should have replaced tokens completely. Writing is more precise, more expressive, and easier to store.
But tokens survived. Why?
"Specifically they provided a system of movable numbers that allowed for stock to be moved and accounts to be modified and updated without committing anything to writing."
—MacGinnis et al. (2014), p. 303
"Tokens have another innate advantage over formal writing systems in that they offered a transfer of information independent of language, and that they could indeed function as 'a bridge between different languages.'"
—MacGinnis et al. (2014), p. 128
Tokens worked across language barriers. Anyone could use them—no literacy required.
The Money Explanation
If tokens were money, their persistence is natural.
Money and writing serve different functions. You do not replace cash with documents. Cash continues because cash does things documents cannot:
- Immediate transfer of value
- Usable by illiterate people
- Works across language barriers
- Flexible, portable, divisible
Tokens continued alongside writing because tokens were money. Writing recorded things. Tokens transferred value. Different tools for different jobs.