Describes various distinctively shaped clay tokens used in western Asia centuries before the Sumerians invented writing. These tokens appear to have served as a basis for Sumerian ideographs. ( MA)

The four essays in this book are concerned with the cultural consequences of literacy in that they demonstrate that some forms of competence, highly valued in society, developed in large part as an unintended consequence of the Greek alphabetic writing system. The first essay, entitled "Spoken Sound and Inscribed Sign," discusses the…