Proto-Writing



To consider Moche art symbols as a form of writing is not a unique and strange phenomenon. In the Halafian region of Mesopotamia, writing developed out of a unique system of symbols that appeared first on clay tokens used for a method of economic trade and carried a wide variety of symbols that represented various commodities. As the economy grew the envelopes and clay pieces were abandoned and the symbols were directly placed on a tablet (Jackson 2002). The similarities among Moche mold makers and Halafian society in charge of trade are astounding. The Moche town of Cerro Mayal appeared to be a location bustling with pot makers who not only lived at this location but also manufactured a wide variety of vessels. The archaeological evidence supports large divisions in the town where various stages of vessel creation occurred from mixing clay to firing (Jackson 2002). This suggests that it was a place of intense production as well as a residential facility. Like anything mass produced, a method of replicating the same form quickly was needed. The archaeological evidence supports the idea that molds for these vessels were also mass produced. The attention paid to mold production indicates that the act of making the mold was of equal importance as producing the item itself (Jackson 2002). In particular, there are several examples of clusters of figures that would have been stamped on the interior of the vessel mold that have nothing to do with the function of the vessel of the idea being portrayed on the outside. For example, there are images of foxes and birds that are interpreted in Colonial times as representing messengers. These figures appear to be stamped on the inside of a large variety of vessels by a wide variety of makers from stirrup-spout bottles to rattles and whistles that do not correlate with the events depicted on the outside (Jackson 2002). They imply a vessel making event that was shared amongst the pot makers. A social ideology tied to the act or time period of making the vessels not indicative of what event the vessels were to be used for (Jackson 2002). Unlike Mesopotamia, the Moche were not keeping track of the flow of commerce, but the shared ideology of making pots that was extremely comprehensive and important to the pot makers.