Prehistoric counting

Short description: Numbering before written text

Cast of a carved reindeer antler with tally marks, from around 15,000-9,500 BCE

Counting in prehistory was first assisted by using body parts, primarily the fingers. This is reflected in the etymology of certain number names, such as in the names of ten and hundred in the Proto-Indo-European numerals, both containing the root *dḱ also seen in the word for "finger" (Latin digitus, cognate to English toe).

Early systems of counting using tally marks appear in the Upper Paleolithic. The first more complex systems develop in the Ancient Near East together with the development of early writing out of proto-writing systems.

Background

Numerals originally developed from the use of tally marks as a counting aid, with the oldest examples being about 35,000 to 25,000 years old.

Development

Counting aids like tally marks become more sophisticated in the Near Eastern Neolithic, developing into numerical digits in various types of proto-writing during the Chalcolithic.

Old world

• Egyptian numerals
• Babylonian cuneiform numerals
• Aegean numerals

Further reading

• Hayden, Brian (2021). "Keeping count: On interpreting record keeping in prehistory". Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 63: 101304. doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2021.101304. 
• Evans, Arthur J. (1900). "Writing in Prehistoric Greece". Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 30: 91–93. doi:10.2307/2842725. 

External links

• Birch, David (March 24, 2010). "Pre Historic Era 100.000 bc - 1438 bc". http://www.thocp.net/timeline/0000.htm. 
• jonhays. "How burning tally-sticks destroyed the British Houses of Parliament". Fortune City. http://members.fortunecity.com/jonhays/tallying.htm.