Clay envelope (bulla) with tokens
Bulla (envoltura de arcilla con fichas e impresiones)
- Date
- c. 3500 BCE · confidence high
- Place
- Susa, Khuzestan, Iran; Uruk, Iraq
- Credited to
- Uruk and Susa societies
- Field
- Communication
What it is
A hollow clay sphere enclosing accounting tokens, bearing on its surface the impressions of those tokens and of a cylinder seal. By making the tokens inside redundant, the outer marks become numerical signs: a direct step towards the written tablet.
What it led to
- A tamper-proof record of a transaction: contract and receipt
- Numerals impressed in clay, independent of the object counted
- The numerical tablet and, within a few generations, proto-cuneiform writing
Built on
Made possible
- Cylinder sealc. 3500 BCE
- Proto-cuneiform writingc. 3300 BCE
- Numerical tablet
- Contract