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To: Strategerist
Yep, pretty depressing.

But of course if you're running a small kingdom like Crete with tributary princes, you better keep track of who has brought how much grain and oil and "ti-ro-pi-de" (tripods - the word that enabled Ventris to break the code).

Writing was invented to keep track of the taxes. (See Domesday Book for a more recent example.) Religious monuments and public proclamations came later.

8 posted on 05/19/2005 3:16:35 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (. . . Ministrix of ye Chace (recess appointment), TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary . . .)
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To: AnAmericanMother

I'd actually feel better if the earliest writing was soft-core porn than tax records :-)


11 posted on 05/19/2005 3:28:54 PM PDT by Strategerist
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