Accounting And Forms Of Accountability In Ancient Civilizations: Mesopotamia And Ancient Egypt

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify the relevance and implications of ancient accounting practices to the contemporary theorizing of accounting. The paper provides a synthesis of the literature on ancient accounting particularly in relation to issues of human accountability, identifies its major achievements and outlines some of the key challenges facing researchers. We argue that far from being an idiosyncratic research field of marginal interest, research in ancient accounting is a rich and promising undertaking. The paper concludes by considering a number of implications of ancient accounting practices for the theorizing of accounting and identifies news avenues for future research.