It can be inferred from the passage that the transition to cuneiform script:
The birth of writing in fourth-millennium BCE southern Mesopotamia arose not from artistic impulses, but out of pressing economic necessity. In the burgeoning city-states of Sumer, such as Uruk, rapid urbanization and centralized religious temple economies generated administrative logistics too intricate for human memory alone. Priests and overseers required infallible records of agricultural yields, surplus grain silos, livestock inventories, and trade contracts. Initial mnemonic devices comprised three-dimensional clay tokens of varied geometric shapes representing commodities. By approximately 3200 BCE, temple scribes transitioned to impressing standardized two-dimensional pictographs onto damp clay tablets using sharpened reeds. Over subsequent centuries, scribes simplified these pictorial curves into stylized wedge-shaped impressions, yielding cuneiform. This technical transition enabled administrators to communicate abstract fiscal concepts, legal statutes, and tax obligations, consolidating institutional authority across Mesopotamian society.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: C. Enhanced centralized administrative control over economic and legal affairs.
- Step 1: Identify the systemic consequences of cuneiform writing for Sumerian governance described at the end of the passage.
- Step 2: The text emphasizes that cuneiform was "capable of recording phonetic syllables and abstract fiscal and legal concepts, consolidating institutional authority through an infallible written apparatus." This directly implies an enhancement of centralized administrative control.
Answer
Enhanced centralized administrative control over economic and legal affairs.
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More Academic Reading: Social Sciences & Humanities questions
- According to the passage, the primary impetus for developing early written records in Sumer was:
- The word burgeoning in the passage is closest in meaning to:
- Prior to two-dimensional impressions on clay tablets, Sumerian accountants recorded commodities using:
- The word infallible in the passage is closest in meaning to:
- Why does the author mention 'stylized wedge-shaped impressions'?
- According to the passage, mobile hunter-gatherer groups were typically characterized by: