In the classic model of the Sumerian economy, the temple
functioned as an administrative authority governing commodity
production, collection, and redistribution. The discovery of
administrative tablets from the temple complexes at Uruk
suggests that token use and consequently writing evolved as a
tool of centralized economic governance. Given the lack of
archaeological evidence from Uruk-period domestic sites, it is
not clear whether individuals also used the system for
____________________. For that matter, it is not clear
how widespread literacy was at its beginnings. The use of
identifiable symbols and pictograms on the early tablets is
consistent with administrators needing a lexicon that was
mutually intelligible by literate and nonliterate parties. As
cuneiform script became more abstract, literacy must have
become increasingly important to ensure one understood what
he or she had agreed to.
* archaeological: 고고학적인 ** lexicon: 어휘 목록
*** cuneiform script: 쐐기 문자
