321:
become widely accepted. As noted by the
Assyriologist Robert K. Englund in 1998, "a general consensus of opinion in the field tends to support" the argument that the plain tokens were "the precursors of the impressed proto-cuneiform signs used for numerical and metrological notations in the earliest texts to represent numbers and measures of products of a redistributive archaic economy"Although Schmandt-Besserat gave credit to the work of her predecessors in the field, she has often been singled out as the discoverer of these correspondences. William Goetzmann's history of money,
70:. The school's nuns directed her to a prospective career as a language interpreter, for which she spent periods in Ireland and Germany in language studies. She met her future husband, Jurgen Schmandt (a philosopher and expert in science policy), in Bonn in 1954; they were married in 1956. They lived in Paris, where three sons (Alexander, Christophe, Phillip) were added to the family.
54:. While her research is highly cited, it has been controversial among scholars. The controversies, as detailed below, concern the interpretation of early tokens, particularly the complex ones; however, the idea that writing emerged out of the counting, cataloging, management, and transactions of agricultural produce has been largely accepted.
335:
There are no commonly accepted standards for classifying tokens as either numerical or pre-writing, and other potential social purposes are suggested by find contexts (e.g., burial sites and funerary offerings). Thus, an unknown portion of the objects classified by
Schmandt-Besserat as "tokens" were
320:
and numerical impressions suggest that tokens were used as numerical counters in the 4th millennium BC. The possible role of tokens was initially noticed and published by French archaeologists Pierre Amiet and
Maurice Lambert and other scholars. In the decades since these publications, the idea has
347:
Her claim that the complex tokens directly prefigured writing has been criticized on various grounds. For example, there is only minimal correspondence between complex tokens and the pictures used as the first commodity labels. There are also significant discontinuities between the archaeological
254:
system that functioned as an extension of the human brain to collect, manipulate, store and retrieve data. She studies how processing an increasing volume of data over thousands of years brought people to think in greater abstraction. However, some of her conclusions have been questioned by later
359:
Her claim that
Neolithic peoples did not recognize quantity shared between sets of physical objects, including tokens used as counters, is âunlikely to have been true, given the innate capacity to appreciate small quantities, which Mesopotamian peoples shared, as well as the âbundling relationsâ
355:
Her claim that
Mesopotamian numbers were particularly concrete is unlikely to be true: âIf ... polyvalence and context-dependence imply an absence of abstract number concepts, then paradoxically, the quasi-literate Uruk accountants would be less numerate than the average Sumerian who did not use
246:
was applied to images resulting in complex visual narratives. She also shows how, reciprocally, art played a crucial role in the evolution of writing from a mere accounting system to literature when funerary and votive inscriptions started to be featured on art monuments.
339:
Her claim that the tokens were used only in one-to-one correspondence has been shown as likely incorrect by statistical analyses and imaging studies that demonstrate
Mesopotamian counting as organized in over a dozen specialized sequences with specific numerical
139:
of the Louvre Museum for their original insights. Oppenheim, she says, "visualized a kind of dual bookkeeping system." Amiet demonstrated that the tokens were in existence far earlier than previously thought, a finding, she says, "of great significance."
356:
texts, only number words.â Also, âthe accountants and scribes who used were able to manage complex administrative tasks, and it is implausible that they did not recognize that â8 sheepâ and â8 bushels of grainâ had something in common.â
81:, where her husband had been offered employment. She applied for a fellowship at Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, to study the origins of the use of clay as a writing material in the Middle East.
343:
Her claim that the tokens comprised a coherent system used throughout the
Mesopotamian Plain beginning as early as the 9th mil. BC has been countered with observations of their significant variability in shapes, sizes, and
238:(2007), Schmandt-Besserat investigated the impact of literacy on visual art. She showed that, before writing, art of the ancient Near East mostly consisted of repetitive motifs. But, after writing, conventions of the
126:
In those articles
Schmandt-Besserat explained her methodology and reviewed the history of archeological discoveries of clay counting tokens found at the main sites in the Asia. She credited the work done by
604:"Evaluating Ancient Numeracy: Social versus Developmental Perspectives on Ancient Mesopotamian Numeration. Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Jean Piaget Society (Vancouver, British Columbia)"
20:
279:
Award for Career
Achievement; the Holloway teaching award; the Eugene Kayden Press Book Award and the Hamilton book Award. She been cited Outstanding Woman in the Humanities by the
332:
Historically, archaeologists have tended to under-collect and under-document small clay objects possibly used as tokens, so
Schmandt-Besserat's catalogue is likely a skewed sample.
905:
The little objects went largely unstudied until Professor Denise Schmandt-Besserat, a scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, began to analyze them in a systematic fashion.
348:
prevalence of commodities and tokens that would indicate them if Schmandt-Besserat's hypothesis were correct; for example, complex tokens with the quartered circle that meant
693:
1005:
Damerow, Peter; Meinzer, Hans-Peter (1995). "Computertomografische Untersuchung ungeöffneter archaischer Tonkugeln aus Uruk, W 20987, 9, W 20987, 11 und W 20987, 12".
1168:
62:
Denise Besserat was born into a family of lawyers and winemakers. Her early education was at the hands of tutors. Her family evacuated to southern France during
1160:. Hosted by MENIC, The Middle East Network Information Center, a public service of The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin
439:
Michalowski, Piotr (1993). "Tokenism: Before Writing, Volume 1: From Counting to Cuneiform. Before Writing, Volume 2: A Catalog of Near Eastern Tokens".
328:
Schmandt-Besserat's claims about the role of tokens in both numbers and writing, particularly the complex tokens, have been significantly criticized:
1163:
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1024:
Friberg, Jöran (1994). "Preliterate counting and accounting in the Middle East: A constructively critical review of Schmandt-Besserat's
574:
Chrisomalis, Stephen (2009). "The Cognitive and Cultural Foundations of Numbers". In Robson, Eleanor; Stedall, Jacqueline A (eds.).
280:
701:
200:
Scientific American, Science News, Time, Life, New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor
963:
Damerow, Peter; Englund, Robert K; Nissen, Hans J (1988). "Die ersten Zahldarstellungen und die Entwicklung des Zahlbegriffs".
893:(Third printing, and first paperback printing ed.). Princeton, New Jersey Oxford: Princeton University Press. p. 23.
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Her first published works on clay tokens were the monograph, "Archaic Recoding System and the Origin of Writing," published by
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Money changes everything: how finance made civilization possible ; with a new afterword by the author
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Amiet, Pierre (1972). "Mémoires de la délégation archéologique en Iran, Tome XLIII, Mission de Susiane".
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Archaic bookkeeping: Early writing and techniques of economic administration in the ancient Near East
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She and her family moved to Austin, Texas in 1971, where she began teaching Art History.
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researchers. She also continues her research on Neolithic symbolism at the site of
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exceed the range perceptible through the innate ability to appreciate quantity.â
474:
Chrisomalis, Stephen, "The Origins and Co-Evolution of Literacy and Numeracy",
627:"Updating the "abstractâconcrete" distinction in Ancient Near Eastern numbers"
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750:
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Amiet, Pierre (1966). "Il y a 5000 ans les Ălamites inventaient l'Ă©criture".
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At the 180th Commencement of Kenyon College she received an honorary degree.
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242:, such as the semantic use of form, size, order and placement of signs on a
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between tokens, which imply the ability to count because quantities like
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Lambert, Maurice (1966). "Pourquoi l'écriture est née en Mésopotamie".
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Schmandt-Besserat's present interest is the cognitive aspects of the
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numerous articles in major scholarly and popular journals among them
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171:"The Earliest Precursor of Writing," Scientific American (1978); and
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46:. She spent much of her professional career as a professor at the
1104:"A New Look at Old Numbers, and What It Reveals about Numeration"
1103:
660:. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 63â83.
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as one of the 100 books that shaped science in the 20th century.
105:
93:
51:
50:. She is best known for her work on the history and invention of
691:
1151:
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1063:
Zimansky, Paul (1993). "Review of Denise Schmandt-Besserat's
681:'Ain Ghazal Excavation Reports, Vol. 1 Symbols at 'Ain Ghazal
260:
67:
858:
Englund, Robert K. (1998). "Review of D. Schmandt-Besserat,
202:.) She was featured in several television programs such as
982:
Nissen, Hans J; Damerow, Peter; Englund, Robert K (1993).
336:
unlikely to have been used for counting or record-keeping.
77:. She graduated in 1965, after which the family moved to
66:, after which she attended a Catholic boarding school at
39:
516:"AN ARCHAIC RECORDING SYSTEM AND THE ORIGIN OF WRITING"
198:
Her work has been widely reported in the public media (
808:"On an operational device in Mesopotamian bureaucracy"
507:
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Die zahlzeichensysteme der archaischen texte aus Uruk
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962:
1169:
Two Precursors of Writing: Plain and Complex Tokens
694:"100 or so Books that shaped a Century of Science"
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692:Philip Morrison, Phylis Morrison (NovâDec 1999).
576:The Oxford Handbook of the History of Mathematics
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547:
513:
503:. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 48â57.
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206:(Discovery Channel), Discover (Disney Channel);
73:Deciding to resume her studies, she entered the
743:Mémoires de la Délégation Archéologique en Iran
1154:Home page at the University of Texas at Austin
1004:
939:
564:
478:, Cambridge University Press, pp. 59â74,
427:The Austinite who discovered origin of writing
143:Her publications on these subjects include:
92:Schmandt-Besserat has worked on the origin of
921:. Austin, TX: University of Texas at Austin.
592:
578:. Oxford University Press. pp. 495â517.
658:The Invention of Cuneiform: Writing in Sumer
352:are rare, yet sheep were a common commodity.
223:She retired in 2004 as Professor of Art and
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940:Damerow, Peter; Englund, Robert K (1987).
919:Before writing: From counting to cuneiform
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150:(2 vols), University of Texas Press 1992;
16:French-American archaeologist (born 1933)
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986:. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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325:(Princeton U.P., 2012) is one example.
281:American Association of University Women
18:
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548:Schmandt-Besserat, Denise (June 1978).
514:Schmandt-Besserat, Denise (July 1977).
501:The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age
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162:, Morrow Jr. 1999 (a children's book);
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787:. Cambridge, MA: Radcliffe College.
270:
550:"The Earliest Precursor to Writing"
275:Schmandt-Besserat has received the
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917:Schmandt-Besserat, Denise (1992).
476:The Cambridge Handbook of Literacy
411:
394:History of ancient numeral systems
168:(University of Texas Press, 2007);
14:
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1164:The Earliest Precursor of Writing
1145:
1030:Orientalistische Literaturzeitung
631:Cuneiform Digital Library Journal
156:, University of Texas Press 1996;
117:The Earliest Precursor of Writing
316:Correspondences between (plain)
1108:Journal of Near Eastern Studies
1102:Overmann, Karenleigh A (2021).
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656:Glassner, Jean-Jacques (2003).
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625:Overmann, Karenleigh A (2018).
188:American Journal of Archaeology
34:, France) is a French-American
889:Goetzmann, William N. (2017).
618:
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1:
864:Written Language and Literacy
602:Chrisomalis, Stephen (2005).
453:10.1525/aa.1993.95.4.02a00110
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229:University of Texas at Austin
1069:Journal of Field Archaeology
484:10.1017/cbo9780511609664.005
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1207:French women archaeologists
1042:10.1524/olzg.1994.89.56.477
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1179:The Emergence of Recording
965:Spektrum der Wissenschaft
806:Oppenheim, A Leo (1959).
783:Broman, Vivian L (1958).
523:Syro-Mesopotamian Studies
423:Austin American-Statesman
234:In her most recent book,
113:Syro-Mesopotamian Studies
87:
38:and retired professor of
30:(born August 10, 1933 in
1174:Reckoning Before Writing
1152:Denise Schmandt-Besserat
745:. Paris: Paul Geuthner.
323:Money Changes Everything
79:Cambridge, Massachusetts
58:Early life and education
28:Denise Schmandt-Besserat
441:American Anthropologist
160:The History of Counting
42:and archaeology of the
1217:Ăcole du Louvre alumni
1007:Baghdader Mitteilungen
944:. Berlin: Gebr. Mann.
860:How Writing Came About
288:How Writing Came About
225:Middle Eastern Studies
154:How Writing Came About
102:information management
24:
1202:French archaeologists
1067:, Volumes I and II".
876:10.1075/wll.1.2.08eng
389:History of accounting
133:University of Chicago
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429:, 3 July 2016, p. D1
302:Who's Who in America
236:When Writing Met Art
214:Search for Solutions
209:The Nature of Things
166:When Writing Met Art
100:, and the nature of
554:Scientific American
240:Mesopotamian script
192:Archaeology Odyssey
180:Scientific American
121:Scientific American
119:in a 1978 issue of
48:University of Texas
698:American Scientist
425:, Michael Barnes,
384:History of writing
293:American Scientist
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900:978-0-691-17837-0
299:She is listed in
271:Awards and honors
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1197:1933 births
1158:'Ain Ghazal
1133:October 23,
870:: 257â261.
766:Archéologia
724:Archéologia
560:(6): 50â59.
344:quantities.
257:'Ain Ghazal
216:(PBS), and
184:Archaeology
115:in 1977and
104:systems in
1191:Categories
708:2008-08-03
405:References
340:relations.
312:Criticisms
286:Her book,
123:magazine.
1128:239028709
1050:163900636
992:469457678
950:255161013
927:438875637
840:159942165
751:1148-6198
533:19 August
529:(2): 1â32
461:0002-7294
32:Ay, Marne
971:: 46â55.
793:79711397
772:: 24â31.
499:(2000).
373:See also
98:counting
1013:: 7â33.
641:June 3,
610:June 3,
259:, near
227:at the
220:(NBC).
212:(CBC),
176:Science
94:writing
52:writing
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637:: 1â22
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318:tokens
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