Information Revolutions and Information Transitions: Counting, Sealing, Writing in Iran 10,000-300 BC.

ABSTRACT: In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of counting, sealing, and writing practices in ancient Iran, spanning approximately 9000 years from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. The survival of clay (and occasionally stone or metal) media for administration in early Iran provides direct evidence for the development of bureaucratic practices. These materials reveal how such practices were situated within a broad range of socio-political, cultural, and environmental circumstances. Through systematic review and statistical analysis of the surviving material residues of Iranian bureaucracy, we identify distinctive deep-time diachronic trends and patterns. Our findings examine the ways in which Iranian societies exhibited a more hesitant and episodic engagement with sealing and writing comp

SUBMITTER: Matthews R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12645803 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature