Denise Schmandt-Besserat is Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

• PrefaceIntroduction: Tokens, a New Theory The MythsThe Pictographic TheoryTokensPart One: The Evidence 1. What Are Tokens? Types and SubtypesEvolution from Plain to Complex MaterialsManufactureThe Token Collection under Study2. Where Tokens Were Handled and Who Used Them Types of SettlementsDistribution within SettlementsStructuresToken ClustersContainers Holding TokensAssociated AssemblagesTokens as Funerary Offerings3.Strings of Tokens and Envelopes Strings of TokensEnvelopes4. Impressed Tablets NumberContextChronologyDescriptionThe SignsBeyond the Impressed Tablets: PictographyThe Meaning of Signs and Their Corresponding TokensThe Place of Impressed Tablets in the Evolution of WritingPart Two: The Interpretation 5. The Evolution of Symbols in Prehistory Symbols and SignsLower and Middle Paleolithic SymbolsUpper Paleolithic and Mesolithic SymbolsNeolithic SymbolsA Turning Point in Communication and Data Storage6. Tokens: The Socioeconomic Implications Reckoning Technology and EconomyReckoning Technology and Social Organization7. Counting and the Emergence of Writing The Various Modes of CountingThe Sumerian Philological EvidenceThe Near Eastern Archaeological Data8. Conclusions: Tokens, Their Role in Prehistory and Their Contribution to Archaeology EconomyPolitical StructureMathematicsCommunicationPart Three: The Artifacts ConesSpheresDisksCylindersTetrahedronsOvoidsQuadranglesTrianglesBiconoidsParaboloidsBent CoilsOvals/RhomboidsVesselsToolsAnimalsMiscellaneousNotesGlossaryIndex

Discoveries in the history of writing are rare, but Denise Schmandt-Besserat made one in realizing that phonetic writing in the West descends not from pictography, a view repeated everywhere, but from abstract, nonphonetic, mostly noniconographic accounting tokens used in Neolithic farming communities of the Near East beginning from about 8000 B.C. A condensation of volume I of Before Writing ...this book is a perfect production, utterly lucid, thoughtfully illustrated, and thoroughly convincing. (American Journal of Archaeology)