The distribution of inscriptions at Talira suggests that writing was not confined to a small palace scribal circle. Short labels, merchant exercises, storage summaries and consultation texts occur across several contexts. The evidence does not permit a numerical literacy rate, but it is consistent with unusually broad practical use of writing for an Iron Age polity of this scale.
The expansion appears to coincide with the institutional growth of written consultation. This does not mean that writing began with Naru. Earlier administrative and regional writing traditions were already present. The distinctive development in Naduma is that a newly standardized local script became useful to people who wished to formulate questions, copy returns and participate in a growing documentary culture.
Current research therefore distinguishes advanced scribal literacy from practical short-form literacy. The latter may have extended well beyond professional scribes by the late ninth century BCE.