A Varied World of Written Words. Some Thoughts on the Oldest Materiality of Scribal and Record-Keeping Practices in the Ancient Near East, c. 3500-2400 BCE

The appearance and development of writing system in Mesopotamia during the last centuries of the 4th millennium BCE are related to the birth of urbanization and to a series of change in the administration and socio-economic organization of the first cities. From the 3rd millennium onwards the interaction between administrative and record-keeping procedures are clearly shown by cuneiform notations on a number of materials, including bullae, tags, seals and sealings, weights, containers. These objects are discussed within their spatial and functional contexts highlighting the change and continuity in the writing practice and the relation between the symbolic system of codifying and conveying information and its materiality, as well as the complex interaction between visual communication, writing and economic devices.