Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies. By Geoffrey Yeo. [Review]

Abstract

Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies by Geoffrey Yeo explores the beginnings of human recording practices. This volume also seeks to update Ernst Posner’s Archives in the Ancient World (1972), which Yeo feels was a landmark text in its time but is now outdated. Yeo clearly defines the scope of the book as looking at early record making and record keeping in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, the Aegean, and the Americas. He acknowledges that this volume does not comment on the contributions of Indigenous cultures in North America or the Indus Valley civilizations, as their 4,000-year-old script is still undeciphered. The vast records created by the Roman and Chinese ruling bodies are also not discussed, as Yeo focuses attention on the earliest developments of record making and record keeping. Even with this tightly defined scope, this book does cover a significant geographical and historical span.