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23 December 2006

Big Tally






2006

Size: 36" Wide x 60" Tall
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

No Longer Available


Big Tally was based on ancient accounting methods. Pre-historic man made notches on bones. In Mesopotamia, 10,000 years ago, the Sumerians developed the first system of abstract numerical representation.


The Mesopotamian cuneiform writing system developed (5,000 years later) from this ancient clay token accounting system. In the 4th millennium B.C., the Mesopotamian accountants began enclosing tokens in clay envelopes (bullae) and impressing the tokens on the outside to indicate the contents.


Later, a pointed stylus was used to incise pictures of tokens in clay tablets instead of impressing the actual tokens. The stylus impressed a wedge shaped mark. (The Latin word cuneus means wedge, thus the name cuneiform.)

In the early token system, the concept of number was not distinct from the concept of the type of item counted. (ie: Ovals were used to represent jars of oil. Jars of oil could only be counted using these ovals.) Gradually, modifications to this accounting system led to an increasingly abstract form of counting.


It wasn’t until about 3,100 B.C. that the first numerals were invented.


To pay homage to those ancient accountants, Big Tally floats in a world of glyphs and marks that allude to quantities, objects, and the recording of information. It is not intended to be an actual depiction of a clay tablet or bulla, only an artist’s interpretation.

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