Origins: Signs of Life

Just 50 years ago, no one knew the origins of perhaps the greatest human invention of all time: writing. The clues lay in thousands of artifacts accumulating dust in the storerooms of the world’s great museums. For 25 years, I visited museums in the Near East, Europe and North America, systematically examining clay objects from the Neolithic period (8000–6000 B.C.). Among figurines, spindle whorls, pots and mud-bricks, I found lots of minuscule clay tokens in many shapes. What were they? No one had any idea. I finally came to understand that these humble clay tokens were counters—and that they […]