# What´s New In History - Did Accountants Build Civilization?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/fan-of-history-741603/what-s-new-in-history-did-accountants-build-civilization
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/fan-of-history-741603/what-s-new-in-history-did-accountants-build-civilization.md
Podcast: [Fan of History](https://stenobird.com/podcast/fan-of-history-741603)
Published: 2026-06-30T23:01:00+00:00
Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/history/episodes/whats-new-in-history
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/history/e/6a4415d46a72c54c8d1585ef/media.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/fan-of-history-741603/episodes/what-s-new-in-history-did-accountants-build-civilization
Duration seconds: 2824

## Resource

This week on What's New in History, I sit down with archaeologist Dr. William Hafford to discuss his fascinating paper, Countdown to Cities: Numeracy and the Development of Urban Society. Could something as simple as counting have helped create the world's first cities? We explore the origins of numeracy, clay tokens, early accounting, the birth of writing, and how archaeology allows us to reconstruct humanity's distant past. Along the way, Bill also shares what it's really like to work as an archaeologist and how new discoveries continue to reshape our understanding of early civilization. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO WHAT'S NEW IN HISTORY YOUTUBE CHANNEL https://www.youtube.com/@whatsnewinhistory This is a podcast by Dan Hörning and Bernie Maopolski. Contact information: E-mail: zimwaupodcast@gmail.com http://facebook.com/fanofhistory https://twitter.com/danhorning https://www.instagram.com/dan_horning/ Music: “Tudor Theme” by urmymuse. Used here under a commercial Creative Commons license. Find out more at http://ccmixter.org/files/urmymuse/40020 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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## Transcript

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