An Information Systems Approach to the Origins of Accounting: Pre-Humans to the Greeks‪.‬

ABSTRACT Accounting is viewed here as an information system designed to measure specific economic transactions in terms of obligations and resources and to communicate these measurements to decision makers. Using this broad, information systems definition, this paper reviews the development of accounting over a 2.5 million year period, from pre-humans to the decline of Greek civilization. Accounting systems evolved from cave art and marks on antlers used by Paleolithic peoples, to the geometric tokens of the Sumerians, cuneiform writing adopted by the Akkadians, Minoan Linear A and then to Greek Linear B script. When Greek city-states instituted public building projects and paid for them with taxes, the citizenry demanded an accounting of the monies spent. In response, public officials developed a formal social accounting responsibility system. But within 500 years, Greek culture declined and the Romans borrowed their predecessors' methods for keeping track of goods.