Günter Dreyer's Umm El-Quaab I—Das prädynastische Königsgrab U-j und seine frühen Schriftzeugnisse presents comprehensively the results of archaeological diggings in the tomb U-j. It also outlines Dreyer's claim to have discovered the origin of writing. The primary aspect of this review essay is to draw the attention of accounting historians to Dreyer's book and to the claim therein to have discovered the earliest known writing. Since this discovery is closely connected to an accounting function (though in a somewhat different way from that of the Sumerian proto-cuneiform writing), a review of Dreyer's book is well justified. Dreyer's claim is based on a series of small inventory tags (identifying in proto-hieroglyphics the provenance of various commodities) found in the tomb of King Scorpion I (c.3400 b.c. to 3200 b.c.).1 Another aspect of this review is a discussion of the controversy surrounding Dreyer's claim and the counter-hypothesis of accounting archaeology, which sees in the token-envelop accounting of Mesopotamia the origin of writing.
THE OLDEST WRITINGS, AND INVENTORY TAGS OF EGYPT
1 King Scorpion I belongs to the so-called “predynastic” kings of southern Egypt; about most of whom little is known. However, Scorpion appears to have been an exception. Thus Breasted (1964: 35) writes regarding this predynastic period: “From the southern kingdom, however, not a single king is known by name, it be that of Scorpion, who appears on a few fragments of this ancient times, and who was deemed to be a mighty chieftain of the south” (translated). This limited knowledge has greatly improved since the first edition of Breasted's well-reputed book. So, for example, Scorpion's picture appears as a relief on the fragment of an ancient votive macehead which shows him opening a breach in a dyke, enabling the floodwater to irrigate the land [see Aldred, 1984, pp. 70–71 and picture 37].
Richard Mattessich; THE OLDEST WRITINGS, AND INVENTORY TAGS OF EGYPT. Accounting Historians Journal 1 June 2002; 29 (1): 195–208. https://doi.org/10.2308/0148-4184.29.1.195
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