one mark equals one unit of resource. Early people created a one-to-one relationship to
measure their resources. This one-to-one abstraction reached its zenith in Sumeria.
One of the first civilizations, Sumeria developed a clay token accounting system. The
purpose of this system was to control famine and food shortages with grain
redistribution. For example, a farmer was required to submit a certain amount of grain
to the government. In turn, the authorities would store collected grain in a temple
grainery. When food shortages occurred, grain would be distributed. To account for
grain transactions in this redistributive economy, government officials developed clay
tokens of various geometric shapes and patterns with one token equaling one measure
of grain. Thus, Sumeria created an entire redistributive economy and civilization based
on geometric tokens representing a variety of commodities.^ Tokens were controlled by
securing them in a clay envelope called a bulla. The bulla could be opened to account for
economic transactions involving farmers and the government.