Pullos, Gillian C.

11-ABM-Steve Jobs FABM I

Individual Activity

How People from Earlier Periods Made Use of the Accounting Process and How It Helped Such Persons
in their Lives

 Jericho, a city located to the west of the Jordan River, is estimated to be at least 11,000 years old  and
is one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities.3 It is believed that the ancient society that
was situated there used a barter system until about 7,500 B.C. when simple tokens and clay balls (with
various shapes) came to represent inventory figures for agricultural goods including wheat, sheep and
cattle. The use of tokens eventually expanded, and tokens and envelopes helped to formulate an
ancient version of what may have been a balance sheet. These tokens and envelopes helped to identify
specific parties with a claim to specific inventory. Tokens also gradually came to represent completed
trade transactions.

 The Bronze Age and Iron Age ushered in a new era in which various civilizations in different regions
developed advanced metalworking. These developments can be found throughout the Gulf Coast,
Europe, Asia, America, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Indian subcontinent. Accounting and
recordkeeping continued to evolve and include various societies using more complex tokens with
markings and linings to differentiate inventory, transactions, and affected parties. Some of these
tokens eventually gave way to advanced tablets, whose markings and signs provided tallies,
recorded inventory counts, transactions, and distinguished inventory items—the underpinnings of a
modern economic system.

 The emergence of accounting in ancient Greece supported the country's financial and banking system.
The Greeks' adoption of the Phoenician writing system, as well as the invention of a Greek alphabet,
helped to facilitate Greek recordkeeping. Similarly, recordkeeping helped to track the progress of
engineering marvels that survive to this day. Additionally, accounting helped to underpin the Romans'
finance and legal system. Combined with the use of currency, which came into use in 300 B.C.,
Rome's advanced commerce system helped to propel its geopolitical power far beyond any
prospective challenger.