gnucash 1.6.1 questions

[Linas Vepstas]

On Sat, Sep 01, 2001 at 12:33:10PM -0600, Robert A. Uhl was heard to remark:
> 
> As I pointed out in a private email, the Rennaissance was fueled in
> great part by the invention of double-entry bookkeeping.  The sudden
> burst of resources thereby realised made possible one of the greatest
> outpourings of art, poetry, literature, sculpture and culture in
> mankind's history.  


Appearently the latest ideas on the origins of writing is that its an
outgrowth of accounting.


Babylonians appearently used small (bean-sized) different-shaped clay 
shapes (spheres, cubes, pyramids) to denote different quantities of
stuff (bushels of grain, livestock headcount).  These were used 
for tax purposes, loans, trade, etc. 

Soon thereafter (i.e. later in the archeological record), the 'contract'
was invented: viz. the litle items were sealed up in a clay ball.
Clearly, a deterent to cheating: one can't change the contents without
breaking the ball.

And soon thereafter (again, appearently this is archeologically dated):
inscriptions on the balls.  Appearently, people kept forgetting
what was inside, and so inscribed glyphs on the outside of the balls,
depicting the contents.  After a while someone realized that the
contents were irrelevent, its what was inscribed on the outside that
counted: and so flat tablets came to be, and there was a proliferation
of markings, beyond just counts and signatures.

Or so I remember from some pop-sci  article.
I thought it was pretty dramatic.

--linas