Numerical answer
Arrange the following sentences (1-5) in the correct logical order to form a coherent paragraph. Enter your answer as the sequence of numbers, e.g. 24153.
1. Early bookkeeping in Mesopotamia used clay tokens, each shape representing a specific quantity of a specific good, such as a sphere for a measure of grain.
2. Eventually, scribes realised that the impressions alone, without the tokens sealed inside, conveyed the same information more efficiently.
3. To record a transaction, these tokens were sealed inside a hollow clay envelope, and their shapes were also pressed into the envelope's outer surface as a visible record of its contents.
4. This realisation, some historians argue, marks one of the earliest steps toward abstract written symbols standing in for physical objects, a precursor to writing itself.
5. Merchants and administrators used this system for centuries before the redundancy in it became apparent: the envelope's outer markings already recorded everything the tokens inside also recorded.
1. Early bookkeeping in Mesopotamia used clay tokens, each shape representing a specific quantity of a specific good, such as a sphere for a measure of grain.
2. Eventually, scribes realised that the impressions alone, without the tokens sealed inside, conveyed the same information more efficiently.
3. To record a transaction, these tokens were sealed inside a hollow clay envelope, and their shapes were also pressed into the envelope's outer surface as a visible record of its contents.
4. This realisation, some historians argue, marks one of the earliest steps toward abstract written symbols standing in for physical objects, a precursor to writing itself.
5. Merchants and administrators used this system for centuries before the redundancy in it became apparent: the envelope's outer markings already recorded everything the tokens inside also recorded.
Show answer and solution
Answer: 13524
Sentence 1 introduces clay tokens. Sentence 3 explains how tokens were sealed in envelopes with impressions on the outside. Sentence 5 notes centuries of use before the redundancy (markings duplicate tokens) became apparent. Sentence 2 gives the scribes' realisation that impressions alone sufficed. Sentence 4 closes with the historical significance of that realisation (a precursor to writing). The order 1-3-5-2-4 traces the chronological and logical development.
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