LOL oh man I used to love The Secret City, thanks for that blast from the past. I wonder if the trippy drum machine stuff is what got me into techno? 
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I highly recommend âHow Writing Came Aboutâ by Denise Schmandt-Besserat: http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Came-About-Denise-Schmandt-Besserat/dp/0292777043 for further discussion about this topic.
There was a fairly common belief among early archaeologists that these types of tokens that were found in abundance throughout sites in the Fertile Crescent might have had some religious significance or maybe even be game tokens. The evidence that these were actually tokens used as a primitive type of receipt became stronger once these were found inside sealed clay envelopes. The prevailing theory is that these tokens would accompany a merchant in a sealed clay envelope as a record of the agreed transaction. If there was a dispute over what was provided, the envelope could be broken and the tokens would act as a receipt. Perhaps in order to prevent the necessity of breaking the envelopes, merchants would impress the tokens on the outside of the envelopes to be used as a record of the tokens that would be within. Eventually, merchants dispensed with the actual tokens altogether and simply made little drawings on the outside of the envelopes to account for the transaction. These drawings are what eventually evolved into the first true writing system.
Evidence of ancient boardgames is not completely non-existent though. One of the most notable examples is The Royal Game Of Ur http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Game_of_Ur which is at The British Museum. In my opinion, that these tokens are the actual evidence of the origin of written language, rather than gaming or religious tokens which might resonate more with our modern sensibilities, is actually a far more fascinating story.
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someone had to post it
I think grave goods, which seem to occur everywhere in unconnected cultures and contexts, are a human thing, not a religious thing, even though some cultures and religions have certainly formalized the practice with various legends and rationalizations. I can easily imagine a group of Bronze Age âThursday Night Gamersâ tearfully including these tokens with their beloved friendâs body, without any religious aspect to the act at all, or any belief that the pieces would ever serve any purpose outside resolution of their own immediate psychological need.
Iâve buried items with my dead, without the knowledge of anyone else involved in the funeral proceedings, even though no part of my religious or philosophical beliefs include anything to do with grave goods. I do not believe in any âafterlifeâ, and do not see any terror in death. In my world thereâs simply no rational reason to inter with the dead materials that would be of use to the living. But inherent irrationality doesnât mean an act is necessarily religious, or that it wouldnât have happened in the absence of religion.
Some things are just the things that people do, like screaming when startled, liking kitten videos, or believing that you need to have something cut out of your head. Perhaps any rational explanation is most likely to be found in the physical structure of the meat engines that house us.
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