Biography:Karenleigh A. Overmann

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Short description: American archaeologist

Karenleigh A. Overmann is a cognitive archaeologist known for her work on how ancient societies became numerate and literate by "using and modifying material forms over generations of collaborative effort."[1] With Thomas G. Wynn and Frederick L. Coolidge, she currently co-directs the Center for Cognitive Archaeology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, where she also teaches as an Assistant Professor (Adjoint) of Anthropology.[1] Before becoming an academic researcher, Overmann served 25 years of active duty in the U.S. Navy.[2]

Education

Overmann completed her doctorate in archaeology in 2016 at the University of Oxford as a Clarendon Scholar[2] under the supervision of Lambros Malafouris.[3] From 2018 to 2020, Overmann was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Bergen, Norway (project 785793).[4]

Work on numeracy

Overmann has analyzed counting artifacts from the Ancient Near East, including fingers, tallies, tokens, and notations, proposing that numbers are realized and elaborated through the use of material forms that make the innate sense of number tangible, visible, and tractable to manipulation.[3][5][6] This work has been highlighted as "a naturalistically plausible account of the emergence of the modern natural number concept."[7] With the assistance of Denise Schmandt-Besserat, Overmann expanded the catalogue of Near Eastern tokens published by Schmandt-Besserat in 1992[8] with over 2,300 new entries.[3][9] The results of analyzing the updated token catalogue were published in 2019 as a component of Overmann's book, The Material Origin of Numbers.

She has also investigated the traditional counting methods used in Oceania, particularly Polynesia; this research solved two mysteries of several centuries' standing: what was meant by the claim that Māori counted by "elevens" and why the Hawaiian word for twenty, iwakalua, meant "nine and two."[4][10] She coined the term "ephemeral abacus" to refer to temporary material forms with exponential structure, including collaborative finger-counting and counting by sorting.[4]

Work on early writing systems and literacy

Overmann has analyzed early writing in Mesopotamia, showing how script and literacy emerged from the practice of handwriting small pictures over the course of about 15 centuries of time.[11][12][13][14] Often working in conjunction with archaeologist Thomas Wynn, she has applied insights gained from her analyses of the way writing changes over time to stone tools in the Lower Paleolithic.[15][16][17]

Other work

With her colleagues Thomas Wynn and Frederick L. Coolidge, Overmann has written about the cognitive differences between Neandertals and contemporary Homo sapiens and the implications for Neandertal extinction.[18] She has also analyzed Jane Austen's novel Emma as a gender-reversed version of Pride and Prejudice[19] and written about conceptions of the mind and madness in the Regency era.[20]

Selected works

Articles

  • Overmann, Karenleigh A., "The Curious Idea that Māori Once Counted by Elevens, and the Insights It Still Holds for Cross-Cultural Numerical Research," Journal of the Polynesian Society (2020)
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A., "Constructing a Concept of Number," Journal of Numerical Cognition (2018)
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A., "Updating the 'Abstract–Concrete' Distinction in Ancient Near Eastern Numbers," Cuneiform Digital Library Journal (2018)
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A., "Thinking Materially: Cognition as Extended and Enacted," Journal of Cognition and Culture (2017)
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A., "Beyond Writing: The Development of Literacy in the Ancient Near East," Cambridge Archaeological Journal (2016)
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A., "Number Concepts are Constructed through Material Engagement," Current Anthropology (2016)
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A., "The Role of Materiality in Numerical Cognition," Quaternary International (2016)
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A., "Numerosity Structures the Expression of Quantity in Lexical Numbers and Grammatical Number," Current Anthropology (2015)
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A., "Finger-Counting in the Upper Palaeolithic," Rock Art Research (2014)
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A., "Material Scaffolds in Numbers and Time," Cambridge Archaeological Journal (2013)
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. and Frederick L. Coolidge, "On the Nature of Numerosity and the Role of Language in Developing Number Concepts," Current Anthropology (2013)
  • Coolidge, Frederick L. and Karenleigh A. Overmann, "Numerosity, Abstraction, and the Emergence of Symbolic Thinking," Current Anthropology (2012)

Authored books, edited volumes, and journal issues

  • Gabriel, Gösta, Karenleigh A. Overmann, and Annick Payne (editors), Signs – Sounds – Semantics. Nature and Transformation of Writing Systems in the Ancient Near East, Wiener Offene Orientalistik 13, Ugarit-Verlag (in press)
  • Wynn, Thomas, Karenleigh A. Overmann, and Frederick L. Coolidge (editors), The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology, Oxford University Press (in press)
  • Wynn, Thomas, Karenleigh A. Overmann, and Lambros Malafouris (editors), "Special Issue, 4E Cognition in the Lower Palaeolithic," Adaptive Behavior (2021)
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A., The Material Origin of Numbers: Insights from the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Gorgias Studies in the Ancient Near East 14, Gorgias Press (2019)
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. and Frederick L. Coolidge (editors), Squeezing Minds from Stones: Cognitive Archaeology and the Evolution of the Human Mind, Oxford University Press (2019)
  • Malafouris, Lambros, Chris Gosden, and Karenleigh A. Overmann (editors), "Special Issue, Creativity, Cognition and Material Culture," Pragmatics & Cognition (2014)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "UCCS Center for Cognitive Archaeology Faculty". University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. 2021. https://cca.uccs.edu/faculty. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "From the US Navy to an Archaeology DPhil at Oxford…". University of Oxford. November 15, 2013. https://oxfordscholarsinaction.wordpress.com/2013/11/15/from-the-us-navy-to-an-archaeology-dphil-at-oxford/. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2019). The Material Origin of Numbers: Insights from the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. ISBN 9781463207434. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Overmann, Karenleigh A (2020). "The Curious Idea that Māori Once Counted by Elevens, and the Insights It Still Holds for Cross-Cultural Numerical Research". Journal of the Polynesian Society 129 (1): 59–84. doi:10.15286/jps.129.1.59-84. http://www.thepolynesiansociety.org/jps/index.php/JPS/article/view/458. 
  5. ↑ Barras, Colin (2021). "How Did Neanderthals and Other Ancient Humans Learn to Count?". Nature 594 (7861): 22–25. doi:10.1038/d41586-021-01429-6. PMID 34079134. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01429-6. Retrieved June 6, 2021. 
  6. ↑ "On the Origin of Numbers". 2021. https://media.nature.com/original/magazine-assets/d41586-021-01491-0/d41586-021-01491-0_19220492.mpga. 
  7. ↑ Zahidi, Karim (2021). "Radicalizing Numerical Cognition". Synthese 198: 529–545. doi:10.1007/s11229-020-02956-x. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11229-020-02956-x. 
  8. ↑ Schmandt-Besserat, Denise (1992). Before Writing: From Counting to Cuneiform, Vol. II. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. ISBN 9780292707832. 
  9. ↑ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2016). Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern tokens. Unpublished. doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.25976.88326/2. 
  10. ↑ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2020). "Counting by "Elevens" and Why Nine and Two make Twenty: The Material Roots of Polynesian Numbers". Journal of Mathematics and Culture 15 (3): 1–32. https://journalofmathematicsandculture.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/overmann-jmc-153-paper-1-may-2021-final-1-1.pdf. Retrieved June 3, 2021. 
  11. ↑ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2016). "Beyond Writing: The Development of Literacy in the Ancient Near East". Cambridge Archaeological Journal 26 (2): 285–303. doi:10.1017/S0959774316000019. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-archaeological-journal/article/abs/beyond-writing-the-development-of-literacy-in-the-ancient-near-east/5897ECAEB0B2623B0EF510B316873AB5. 
  12. ↑ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2021). "A Cognitive Archaeology of Writing: Concepts, Models, Goals". The Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Practices. Oxford: Oxbow. pp. 55–72. ISBN 9781789254785. 
  13. ↑ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2018). The reorganization of writing as script and literacy. Unpublished. doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.32687.76962/1. 
  14. ↑ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2021). "Writing System Transmission and Change: A Neurofunctional Perspective". Signs – Sounds – Semantics. Nature and Transformation of Writing Systems in the Ancient Near East. Wiener Offene Orientalistik 13. Wein: Ugarit-Verlag. pp. 93–116. 
  15. ↑ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2021). "The Material Difference in Human Cognition". Adaptive Behavior 29 (2): 123–136. doi:10.1177/1059712320930738. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1059712320930738. 
  16. ↑ Overmann, Karenleigh A; Wynn, Thomas (2019). "Materiality and Human Cognition". Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 26 (2): 456–478. doi:10.1007/s10816-018-9378-y. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10816-018-9378-y. 
  17. ↑ Overmann, Karenleigh A; Wynn, Thomas (2019). "On Tools Making Minds: An Archaeological Perspective on Human Cognitive Evolution". Journal of Cognition and Culture 19 (1–2): 39–58. doi:10.1163/15685373-12340047. https://brill.com/view/journals/jocc/19/1-2/article-p39_2.xml. 
  18. ↑ Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A; Coolidge, Frederick L (2016). "The false dichotomy: A refutation of the Neandertal indistinguishability claim". Journal of Anthropological Sciences 94 (94): 201–221. doi:10.4436/jass.94022. PMID 26708102. 
  19. ↑ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2009). "Darcy and Emma: Jane Austen's ironic meditation on gender". Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal 31: 222–235. http://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions/no31/darcy-and-emma-austens-ironic-meditation-on-gender/. Retrieved June 5, 2020. 
  20. ↑ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2009). "Cartesian Dualism, Real and Literary Madness in the Regency, and the Mind and Madness in Austen's Novels". Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal 35: 109–128. http://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions/no35/cartesian-dualism-real-and-literary-madness-in-the-regency-and-the-mind-and-madness-in-austens-novels/. Retrieved June 5, 2020. 

External links

See also




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