Final answer:
The first trace of accounts was discovered on temples dating back to 4000 BC. Tokens and clay balls marked with pictures were used to represent different goods and transactions, eventually evolving into flat clay tablets and written records.
Step-by-step explanation:
The first trace of accounts was discovered on the temples that date back to 4000 BC. Archaeologist Denise Schmandt-Besserat argued that small clay representations of numbers and objects, called tokens, were part of an ancient accounting system.
These tokens were found within clay balls marked with pictures of the tokens inside, which portrayed the type of transaction in which the goods represented by the tokens were exchanged. Over time, the marked clay balls gave way to flat clay tablets, and the first written records emerged.