Proto-Elamite script

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The Proto-Elamite script is a writing system used briefly during the early Bronze Age before the introduction of Elamite cuneiform. It remains largely undeciphered, except for various numbers. There are many similarities between the writing systems of the Proto-Elamite tablets and the contemporaneous proto-cuneiform tablets of the Uruk IV period in Mesopotamia. Both are relatively isolated. Singletons aside, tablets have been found at only five Proto-Elamite sites. For comparison, Proto-cuneiform tablets have only been found at Uruk, Jemdet Nasr, Khafajah, and Tell Uqair, and the vast majority of each type have been found at Susa and Uruk. The tablet blanks, the inscribing method, even the practice of using the reverse for summation, when needed, are the same. They serve the same basic function which is administrative accounting of goods in a centrally controlled society. From that base, there are also differences, the signs themselves being the most obvious but extending to smaller areas such as the order in which the tablet was inscribed, are clear. The many similarities between the numeric systems of Proto-cuneiform and Proto-Elamite have helped in understanding it. Proto-Elamite, in addition to the usual sexagesimal and base-120, also uses a decimal system. Beginning around the 9th millennium BC, a token based system came into use in various parts of the ancient Near East. These evolved into marked tokens and later marked envelopes, often called clay bullae. These are believed to be the basis of Proto-Elamite as well as proto-cuneiform (with many of the tokens, about two-thirds, having been found in Susa). Tokens remained in use after the development of proto-cuneiform and Proto-Elamite. The earliest tablets contain only lists of numbers. They are found not only at Susa and Uruk, but also at sites without later Proto-Elamite and proto-cuneiform tablets, like Tell Brak, Habuba Kabira, Tepe Hissar, Godin...