“Along with cities came writing, which developed between about 3500 and 3100 B.C. in Mesopotamia. The growth of writing from simple recordkeeping can be traced step by step. Before writing, Mesopotamian people used tiny clay or stone tokens to represent objects being counted or traded. By 3500 B.C., with 250 different types of tokens in play, the system had grown unwieldy enough for people to start using signs on a clay tablet by making indentations in the clay with a reed stylus: writing. New words were soon added through pictographs (pictures that stand for particular objects). In time the pictographs evolved into ideograms–that is, abstract symbols that are no longer recognizable as specific objects and thus can be used to denote ideas as well as things.”

How dreary it is compared to your chapter on the development of writing in the *History of the Ancient World*! I remember everything I’ve read in your book because you actually bothered to *explain* things. Thank you for writing history books that are actually worth reading. Someday when my future children are in high school, I’ll have them read your books.