Subscription pricing
passage 3
Hundreds of clay tablets marked in cuneiform have been found in excavations of the Sumerian city of Uruk (in present-day Iraq). Though the tablets date from roughly 3000 B.C., the writing on them uses relatively few pictographs; instead, numerous
The earliest of the tokens were simple in form—small cones, spheres, and pyramids—and they were often inscribed. In 1966, a hollow tablet containing several of these tokens was discovered, and more than 100 additional tablets, which are now recognized as sealed envelopes of clay, have since been found. Later envelopes are also inscribed with impressions of tokens in the outer clay, signaling exactly what each envelope contained.
The token system, essentially a system of three-dimensional nouns, was replaced in about 3100 B.C. by a system of marks on clay tablets. A few centuries later, this latter system was to display the first use of numerals, where simple marks coded the concepts of one, two, and so forth. The eventual evolution of this system into mature writing, Schmandt-Besserat suggests, can be seen in the following example: At first it took two ovoid tokens to record two jars of oil. A little later, it took two markings on a clay tablet to achieve this—one mark, using the outline of the old token, to record the customary unit measure for oil, the jarful, and a second mark to convey the numeral: two oil jars. Eventually, it took three signs on the tablet, one for the numeral 2, one for the standard jarful, and a new symbol that denoted oil itself. With three such signs, an abstract and flexible written form had arrived.
15.
Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?
a
Based on her analysis of inscription-bearing clay envelopes containing tokens dating to roughly 4000 B.C., Schmandt-Besserat concludes that this system of tokens eventually evolved into an abstract written language.
b
The discovery of clay tablets bearing inscriptions representing the tokens they contain confirms the belief of Schmandt-Besserat that these tokens served to designate the products given by villagers to their temples.
c
Inscription-bearing clay envelopes containing tokens discovered in modern Iraq have provided Schmandt-Besserat with the evidence required to resolve the puzzlement of archaeologists over the sudden appearance of sophisticated crafts.
d
The inscriptions found on clay envelopes containing small clay tokens have enabled Schmandt-Besserat to formulate a more detailed picture of the way in which a simple system of three-dimensional nouns evolved into modern languages.
e
The discovery of inscription-bearing clay envelopes containing small tokens confirms Schmandt-Besserat's hypothesis that a language becomes increasingly abstract as the arts and crafts of the people who use the language become more abstract.