this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
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Mildly Interesting
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Unless ancient humans were all Matt Parkers, it makes no sense to me that they'd make a gigantic counting system.
"Hey, we have 6 more livestock now"
"GATHER THE MEN, we're adding rocks to the hill!"
You're talking about a time that could be pre-numbering system so instead of "i have 6 sheep" it's more like "I have this many sheep" and you point to your hole which has 6 of whatever the thing is that they were using. maybe kernels of corn? Then you make sure you have one kernel for each sheep. But I'm just guessing.