As far as we know, there was at the time no writing system before the Flood, and, as a matter of fact, not even for a long time afterwards. So it may come even more as a surprise to learn about the accounting system that had been in use there for millenia.

With the beginning of agriculture and animal husbandery, arose the need for keeping track of both animal and cereal units. It seems that the system that has been developed rather quickly has been that of clay tokens. There were all sorts, as every particular shape represented both a particular object and quantity. This system was both abstract and precise, and is one of the first -if not the first- clear manifestation of mathematics.

The earliest set of tokens recovered was found in what had been a small village in Iran at about 8000 BC -meaning this accounting system should be about 10000 years old. This system had been in used pretty much at the same period all over the Near East, and had certainly not originated from that village. One theory places the birth place of that system somewhere in the east of Turkey, in a village we wouldn't have found so far.

Those tokens were at the beginnings fairly simples (see picture). As it became widespread and with the development of the earliest cities, shapes became more varied and were also incised or pierced (see picture). They would not only allow to keep count of one's possessions, but also would be used for selling contracts or public records later on.