Denise Schmandt-Besserat

	Denise Schmandt-Besserat
	Publications

Books and Monographs

Forthcoming. The History of the Alphabet, submitted for publication. Forthcoming. The History of Writing. NY: Morrow Junior Books.
1999. The History of Counting. NY: Morrow Junior Books.
1998-99. Symbols at 'Ain Ghazal. http://menic.utexas.edu/menic.ghazal
1996. When Writing Came About. Austin: University of Texas Press.
(Listed in the Morrison list as one of the 20th century's 100 most influential books.)
1992. Before Writing. Vol. 1: From counting to Cuneiform. Austin: University of Texas Press.
1992. Before Writing. Vol. 2: A Catalog of Near Eastern Tokens. Austin: University of Texas Press.
1980. Editor, Ancient Persia. Malibu, California: Undena Publications.
1979. Editor, Early Technologies. Malibu, California: Undena Publications.
1978. Editor, Immortal Egypt. Malibu, California: Undena Publications.
1977. "An Archaic Recording System and the Origin of Writing." Syro Mesopotamian Studies. Vol. 1
1976. Editor, The Legacy of Sumer. In: Bibliotheca Mesopotamica. Vol. IV. Malibu, California: Undena Publications.
1974. Archaeology. Austin: Wings Books, Steck & Vaughn Company.
Articles
Forthcoming. "Tokens, Envelopes and Impressed Tablets at Habuba Kabira." In Eva Strommenger, ed.,
Habuba Kabira Sud- Die Kleinen Funde. (= Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichung der Deutschen Orient Gesellschaft, p. 26).
1999. "Accounting with Tokens in the Ancient Near East."
http://www.dla.utexas.edu/depts/lrc/numerals/dsb1.html
1999. (with G. O Rollefson & J. C. Rose) "A Decorated Skull from MPPNB 'Ain Ghazal."
Palé:orient 24,2:99-104.
1999. "The Origin of Writing and Counting in the Ancient Near East." In: Norman Simms, ed.,
Letters and Texts of Jewish History. Hamilton, New Zealand: xx, 51-59.
1998. "A Stone Metaphor of Creation." Near Eastern Archaeology 61,2:99-104.
1998. "Accounting Before Writing in the Ancient Near East." Porocilo 24.151-156.
1998. "A Neolithic Female Revealing her Breasts." In: Jan Braun, ed., Written on Clay and Stone.
Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to Krystyna Szarzynska on the Occasion of her 80th Birthday.
Warsaw: Agade, 79-85.
1998. "Ain Ghazal Monumental Figures." Bulletin of American School of Oriental Research 310:1-17.
1997. "Animal Symbols at 'Ain Ghazal." Expedition 39,1:48-58.
1996. "Neolithic art and Symbolism at 'Ain Ghazal." American Journal of Archeology 101,3 (1997): 506-507.
1996. "Symbols of Gods and Symbols of Goods," In: Piera Ferioli & Enrica Fiandra, eds., Administration in Ancient Societies.
Rome: Ministero per I beni culturali ambianti ufficio centrale per I beni archivistifci, 15-23.
1996. "Neolithic art and Symbolism at 'Ain Ghazal," American Journal of Archeology 100,3:516-517.
1995. "Art, Writing and Narrative in Mesopotamia," in H. Gasche and B. Hrouda, eds,
Collectanea Orientalia , Histoire, Arts de l'Espace et Industrie de la Terre, Recherches et
Publications, Paris 1996, p. 315-322.
1995. "Non-verbal Communication in the Ancient Near East," In: Jack Sasson, ed.,
Civilizations of the Ancient Near East , Scribner's, New York, p. 2097-2106.
1994. "Forerunners of Writing." In: Harmut Günther, ed.,
Schrift und Schriftlichkeit. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, p. 264-268.
1994. "Oneness, Twoness, Threeness - How Ancient Accountants Invented Numbers." Reprinted from The Sciences , 1987, in Frank J. Swetz,
From Five Fingers to Infinity , Open Court,
Chicago, p. 45-51.
1994. "Tokens: a Prehistoric Archive System." In: Enrica Fiandra, Piera Ferioli, eds., Archives Before Writing. Rome: Centro Internazionale di
Ricerche Archeologiche Anthropologiche e
storiche, pp. 13-28.
1994. "Tokens in Minoan Crete," Discussion for the paper presented by Jean-Claude Poursat.
In: Enrica Fiandra, Piera Ferioli, eds., Archives Before Writing. Centro Internazionale di
Ricerche Archeologiche Anthropologiche e storiche, Rome, pp. 253-254.
1994. "Tokens, Seals and Administration in Uruk in the Fourth Millennium B.C."
In: Beschreiben und Deuten in der Archaeologie des Alten Orients.
Festschrift für Ruth Mayer-Opificius. Altertumskunde des Vorderen Orients, Vol. 4.283-296.
1994."About the Authors," In: Connie Burton & Beverly Spicer, Open Ceiling, pp. 105-108.
Austin: Futura Communications.
1994 "Forerunners of Writing: The Social Implications" in W. C. Watt, Writing, Reading and
Cognition , Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands, p. 303-310.
1993 "Images of Enship," in Marcella Frangipane, H. Hauptmann, M. Liverani et alii, eds,
Between the Rivers and Over the Mountains , Archaeologica Anatolica et Mesopotamica
Alba Palmieri Dedicata, Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche Archeologische e
Anthropologiche dell'Antichita Universita di Roma "La Sapienza," Rome 1993. p. 201-
220.
1992 "The Origin of Visible Language, " in Jan Wind, Brunetto Chiarelli, Bernard
Bichakjian, eds., Language Origin: a Multidisciplinary Approach , Kluwer Academic
Publishers, the Netherlands, p. 225-234.
1991 with Elisabeth Feldbush "Clay Tokens as Forerunners of Writing: The Linguistic
Significance" in Elisabeth Feldbush, ed., Proceeding of the 25th Colloquium of
Linguistics , Paderborn, 1990, Verlag Niemeyer, Tuebingen, p. 485-493.
1990 "The Earliest Precursor of Writing," in William S. Y. Wang, The Emergence of
Language , Readings from Scientific American Magazine, W. H. Freeman and Co, New
York, p. 31-45.
1990 "Symbols in the Prehistoric Middle East," in Richard Leo Enos, ed., Oral and Written
Communication: Historical Approaches , Written Communication Annual, Volume 4, p. 16-
31.
1990 "Accounting in the Prehistoric Middle East," Archeomaterials , Vol. 4, No. 1, p. 15-23.
1989 "Two Precursors of Writing in One Reckoning Device, " in Wayne M. Senner, The Origins
of Writing , University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, p. 27-39.
1989 Jointly with Liane Jacob-Rost, "Tokens aus dem Heiligtum Eanna in Uruk," Forschungen
und Berichte , Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Vol. 27, P. 11-50
1989 "Conto e Contabilita nel Medio Oriente Prehistorico," in F. Mario Fales, ed.
Prima Dell'Alphabeto , Studi e Documenti, Vol. 4, Erizzo Editrice, Venice, P. 54-60.
1988 "Tokens at Uruk," Baghdader Mitteilungen , Vol. 19, P. 1-175.
1988 "From Accounting to Writing," In Bennett A. Rafoth and Donald L. Rubin, eds, The Social
Construction of Written Communication , Ablex Publishing Co. Norwood, New Jersey,
Chapter 5, P. 119-130.
1988 "Accounting in Prehistory," Proceedings of the Fifth World Congress of Accounting
Historians , No. 301, p. 1-10.
1988 "Tokens as Funerary Offerings," Vicino Oriente , Vol. VII, P. 3-9.
1988 "Quantification and Social Structures," in David R. Maines and Carl Couch, eds,
Information, Communication and Social Structures . Charles C. Thomas, publisher,
Springfield, Ill. P. 137-153.
1987 "Oneness, Twoness, Threeness," The Sciences , Vol. 27, No. 4, p. 44-49.
1986 "Tokens: Facts and Interpretation,"Visible Language , Vol. 20, No. 3, P. 250-273
1986 "An Ancient Token System: The Precursor to numerals and Writing," Archaeology ,
Vol. 39, No. 6, p. 32-39
1986 "Tokens at Susa," Oriens Antiquus , Vol. XXV, No. 1-2, p. 93-125
1986 "The Origin of Writing An Archaeologist's Perspective," Written Communications , Vol
3. No. 1, p. 31-45
1986 "The Earliest Precursor of Writing" (reprinted from Scientific American, vol. 238, No. 6,
1978) in William S.Y. Wang, ed., Language, Writing and the Computer , W.H. Freeman
Co., p. 31-40
1986 "Before Numerals," (reprinted from Visible Language , Vol. 18, No. 1) Orpheus, No. 1, p.
48-60
1986 "Clay Symbols for Data Storage in the VIIth Millennium B.C." in M. Liverani and Alba
Palmieri, eds., Studi di Paletnologia in onore di Salvatore M. Puglisi, Universita di Roma,
La Sapienza, Roma, p. 149-154
1985 "Tonmarken und Bilderschrift," Das Altertum , Vol. 31, No. 2, p. 76-82
1985 "Avant la Naissance des Chiffres" Internationale de l'Imaginaire , Vol. 2. p. 73-82
1984 "Before Numerals," Visible Language , Vol. 18, No. 1, p. 48-60
1984 "Proto-literate Counting: The Archaeological Evidence," Collected Papers of the Society for
Near Eastern Studies , Montreal, Vol. 2, p. 21-24
1983 "Tokens and Counting," Biblical Archaeologist , Vol. 46, p. 117-120
1983 "The Earliest Precursor of Writing" (reprinted from Scientific American Vol. 238, No. 6,
1978), in Brian M. Fagan, ed., Prehistoric Times, W. H. Freeman Co., p. 194-203
1982 "The Emergence of Recording," American Anthropologist , Vol. 84, No. 4, p. 871- 878.
1982 "How Writing Came About," Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik , p. 1-5
1982 "The Earliest Precursor of Writing," (reprinted from Scientific American , Vol. 238, No. 6,
1978) in S. Y. Wang, ed., Human Communication , W. H. Freeman Co., p. 80-89
1981 "Decipherment of the Earliest Tablets," Science , Vol. 211, 18 January, p. 283-285
1981 "Tablets and Tokens: A Re-Examination of the So-Called 'Numerical Tablets'."
Visible Language , Vol. XV, No. 3, p. 321-344
1981 "The Invention of Writing," (reprinted from Discovery , Vol. I, No. 4, 1977) in
Maxine C. Hairstone and Cynthia L. Selve, eds., Selected Papers from the 1981 Texas
Writing Conference , Austin, p. 213-236
1981 "The Envelopes that Bear the First Writing," Technology and Culture , Vol. 21, No. 3, P. 357-
385.
1980 "Ochre in Prehistory: 300,000 Years of the Use of Iron Ores as Pigments." In
T. A. Wertime and J. Muhly, eds., The Coming of the Age of Iron . Festschrift
in honor of Cyril S. Smith. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press,
p. 127-150
1980 "An Archaic Recording System Prior to Writing" in F.E.H. Schroeder, Popular
Culture Before Printing , Bowling Green University Press, p. 17-36
1979 "Reckoning Before Writing," Archaeology , Vol. 32, No. 2, p. 22-31
1979 "An Archaic Recording System in the Uruk-Jemdet Nasr Period," American Journal
of Archaeology , Vol. 83, No. 1, p. 19-48
1979 "The Earliest Precursor of Writing," (reprinted from Scientific American, Vol. 238, No. 6,
C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, ed., in Hunters, Farmers and Civilizations , W.H. Freeman and
Co., p. 152-161
1978 "The Earliest Precursor of Writing," Scientific American , Vol. 238, No. 6, p. 50-58.
Translations
"Les plus anciens précurseurs de l'écriture." Pour la Science , No. 10, p. 12-22.
"Gli antecedenti dell a scrittura." Le Scienze , Vol. XXI, No. 120, p. 6-15
"El primer antecedente de la escriture." Investigacion y Ciencia . August, p. 6-17
"Vom Urprung der Schrift", Spektrum der Wissenschaft . December, p. 4-13
Japanese
1977 "The Earliest Uses of Clay in Anatolia," Anatolian Studies , Vol. 27, p. 133-150
1977 "The Invention of Writing," Discovery : Research and Scholarship at the
University of Texas at Austin, Vol. 1, No. 4, p. 4-7
1977 "The Earliest Uses of Clay in Syria," Expedition , Vol. 19, No. 13, p. 38-42
1977 Jointly with C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, "A Reevaluation of the Bampur, Khurab, and
Chah Huseini Collection in the Peabody Museum: Relations with Tepe Yahya and
Ceramics of Tepe Yahya IV C." In T. C. Young, Jr. and L. D. Levine, eds.,
Mountains and Lowlands: Essays in the Archaeology of Greater Mesopotamia .
Festschrift in honor of R. H. Dyson Jr., Malibu, California: Undena Publications, p. 113-
134
1976 "Sumer: Art in an Urban Context." In Denise Schmandt-Besserat, ed., The
Legacy of Sumer . Malibu, California: Undena Publications, p. 79-86
1976 "A Series of Exhibits on the Ancient Middle East at The University of Texas at Austin,"
Archaeology , Vol. 30, No. 1, p. 56-57
1974 "The Beginnings of the Use of Clay in the Zagros," Expedition , Vol. 16, No. 2,
p. 10-17
1967 "A Palestinian Pottery Collection on Exhibit at the Peabody Museum," Harvard University
Bulletin , Vol. XV, No. 4, p. 345-352.
Encyclopedia Articles
Forthcoming "Artifacts and Civilization" entry for The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive
Sciences .
Forthcoming Contributions to Archaeological Encyclopedia of Syro-Mesopotamia, Iran and
Arabian Peninsula : - "En - Priest king,"
- "Ancient Recording Systems"
- "Tokens"
- "Origins of Writing,"
- "Warka Vase,"

1996 "Writing," The Oxford Companion to Archaeology , Oxford University Press,
p. 761-763.
1996 "Writing" The Oxford Companion to Archaeology , Oxford University Press, p. 781-3.
1989 "Tokens", International Encyclopedia of Communications , Oxford University Press
and the Annenberg School of Communication, The University of Pennsylvania, p.
1980 "Tokens", The Arete Encyclopedia of Archaeology .
Reviews
1995 Henri-Jean Martin, The History and Power of Writing , Univ. of Chicago Press, 1994,
Technology and Culture .
1995 Henri-Jean Martin, The History and Power of Writing , Univ. of Chicago Press, 1994,
Los Forum , No 21, p. 32-34.
1995 H. Nissen, P. Damerow, R.K. Englund, Archaic Bookkeeping: Early Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration in the Ancient Near
East , The University of Chicago Press, 1993, Forum, Language Origin Society , p. 12-14.

1995 Ibid, for Libraries and Culture , vol. 30, No. 3, p. 313-314.

1995 H. Nissen, P. Damerow, R.K. Englund, Fruehe Schrift und Techniken der Wirtschafts
-verwaltung im alten Vorderen Orient , for the Journal of The American Oriental the Society ,
Vol. 114, No. 4 (1994) p. 659-661.
1991 Paul Heyer, Communication and History , Libraries & Culture , Vol. 26, No 4, P. 613 -615.
1991 Paul Heyer, Communication and History , in Language Origin Society Newsletter , No 12,
P. 15-17.
1990 Paul Heyer, Communication and History , in Comtemporary Sociology , vol.18, No. 5, p.
540-541,
1989 Jack Goody, The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society , in Libraries and Culture , Vol. 24, No 2, p. 239-241.
1988 Jack Goody, The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society , in Language
Origins Society Newsletter , No. 4, p. 9-12.1988 Roy Harris, The Origin of Writing , in Libraries and Culture , Vol. 23, No. 1,
p. 81-83.
1987 Roy Harris, The Origin of Writing , in Language Origins Society Newsletter ,
No. 5, p. 14-18.

1986 Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals from the Marcopoli Collection , by Beatrice
Teissier, The Journal of Library History , Vol. 21, No. 4, p. 774-775
1983 Pre-Writing in Southeastern Europe , by Shan M. N. Winn, American Journal of
Archaeology , Vol. 88, p. 71-72

1983 La Statuaire du Proche Orient Ancien , by Agnes Spycket, Journal of the American
Oriental Society , Vol. 103, No. 4, p. 789-791
1979 L'Art Antique du Proche Orient , by Pierre Amiet, Journal of the American Oriental
Society , Vol. 99, No. 3, p. 480

1978 The Neolithic of the Near East , by James Mellaart, Journal of the American Oriental
Society , Vol. 98, No. 1, p. 593-594
1978 Stone Age Painting in India , by Robert R. R. Brooks and Vishnu S. Wakankan, American
Anthropologist , Vol. 80, No.1, p. 184-185.
1977 Godin Tepe: Second Preliminary Report , by T. Cuyler-Young, Jr. and L. Levine,

Journal of the Oriental Society , Vol. 97, p. 61-64
Exhibition Catalogues
1977 Ancient Persia, The Art of an Empire , Austin, Texas, The University Art Museum. p. 117
1977 With Sara Otto-Diniz and Jacqueline Pinsker MCCaffrey, At the Court of the Great King -
The Art of the Persian Empire (Children's catalogue), p. 30
1976 With Sara Otto-Diniz, Open Sesame, The Story of Persian Locks , Austin, Texas: The
University of Texas Art Museum. (Children's catalogue), p. 29

1976 With S. Mayer and M. Timko, Egypt in the Days of the Pharaoh , Austin, Texas:
The University of Texas Art Museum. (Children's catalogue), p. 29
1975 The First Civilization: The Legacy of Sumer , Austin, Texas: The University
of Texas Art Museum, p. 95

1975 With S. Mayer. The Story of Sumer: The First Civilization , Austin, Texas:
The University of Texas Art Museum. (Children's catalogue), p. 30
1966-68 Descriptive catalogues of the Peabody Museum collections (mimeos): -Alishar Huyuk,
-Troy, -Mersin, -Tarsus, -Palestinian Pottery Assemblage, -Samieh, -Jericho, -Beth Shemesh,
-Sir Aurel Stein Collection, -Southeastern Iran, -Predynastic Egypt

Audio Visual
1987 Origins and Development of Western Writing , (video). Alarion Press, Boulder, Colorado.
1980 The Origin and Development of Writing , (Sound film strip) Alarion Press, Boulder,
Colorado.
1979 Origins of Writing , (slide show), circulated by the Archaeological Institute
of America

Skriptografische Kulturen
Schmandt- Besserat, Denise. Vom Ursprung der Schrift. In: Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Dezember 1978, S.5-12