Numerical Signs: The Sumerian and Chinese Cases

Numerical Signs: The Sumerian and Chinese Cases

Sumerian and Chinese writing systems are two of the oldest writing systems of the world. So far as the earliest readable documentations are concerned, the Sumerian writing system starting from Uruk IVa (ca. 3300 BCE ) is approximately 2000 years earlier than the ancient Chinese writing system known from the late Shang Dynasty (ca. 1300 BCE ). Nevertheless, they share a great number of common features in various aspects. However, the present paper does not intend to give an overall view of all the common features the two writing systems share, but concentrates solely on the numerical signs. Both Sumerian and Chinese writing systems began with the notation of numbers by means of visible marks which took different forms, from which two questions arise: 1) Why do the numerical signs precede the pictogrphic signs? 2) What lies behind the numerical signs, from which they took their initial forms? Based on archaeological and textual data, the present paper demonstrates that the need for numbers in a growing economy necessitated a recording system by means of substantials which developed in due course into a recording system by means of two dimensional marks. The way the numerical signs came into existence is a ready answer to the second question: The basic numerical signs are the two-dimensionalization of the material counters used before writing. Therefore, numerical signs are pictographic in nature. They are not, as some scholars have claimed, abstract signs drawn at random.