Some anthropologists theorize that it wasn't the creation and use of tools that marked the emergence of early humans from their more animal-like ancestors, but the beginning of genuin
oral, and later pictorial communication. The development of a genuine
system of writing, thoug
came much later, as some societies transitioned from hunter-gatherer to permanent agrarian
communities. This nelifestyrequired counting property - like parcels of land, livestock or
measures of crops - and also the ability to transfer ownership of things from one individual or
settlement to another. Early such record-keeping was done with "counting tokens" about 9,000
years ago. But these tokens eventually were replaced by symbols that could be pressed or
inscribed into clay, and this marked the beginning of a written language. These symbols began
as pictures that represented what they pictured, but over time pictures also began to represent
concepts and, eventually sounds. Thus, written language was a natural outgrowth of an
increasingly agrarian society.