Historical contribution
What Schmandt-Besserat contributed
She assembled and interpreted large token corpora, arguing that shaped counters represented commodities and quantities before some of their forms were transferred into impressed and written signs.
Why it mattered
Her work made accounting objects central to debates about how administration, number and writing developed together.
Connected topics
Where this fits in ITEM
Evidence
Sources and further reading
- Tokens: Their Significance for the Origin of Counting and Writing
Denise Schmandt-Besserat · University of Texas at Austin