Spheres of interest: Hollow clay balls at the dawn of ancient Near Eastern history
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http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/117268Identifiers
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- Číslo 2 [2]
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2019Publisher
Univerzita Karlova, Filozofická fakultaPraha
Praha
Source document
Chatreššar (web)ISSN: 2571-1393
Periodical publication year: 2019
Periodical Volume: 2019
Periodical Issue: 2
Link to license terms
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/Keywords (English)
prehistory, archaeology of the ancient Near East, reciprocity, redistribution, tokens of clay, writingThis paper discusses hollow clay spheres containing clay symbols (“tokens”) from sites of the prehistoric and early historic Near East. A list of them is provided, and an interpretation as information conveyors to sites with central functions is suggested. The hollow clay balls (HCB) represent an important source for the administration of the socially engineered flow of goods in the preliterate societies of Western Asia, and they do constitute a predecessor of writing