The History of Marks from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

The act of inscribing the first distinctive signs on manufactured products and recipients of merchandise constituted the earliest example of what we call today intellectual property. More than 8000 years B.C., long before the Sumerians, the artisans and merchants of Catal Hüyük in Turkey, Jericho in Palestine, Harappa, Mehrgarh, Mohenjo-Daro and Lothal in the Indus valley already used signs, verbal or figurative marks in the course of trading with others... This study, spanning the years from the sacred, collective property of Antiquity to the Guilds and Corporations of the Middle Ages, seeks to discover marks throughout their historical context.