ArticlePhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2017
From number sense to number symbols. An archaeological perspective.
Article in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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20 citing papers in PubMed, 99 citations in OpenAlex.
- Humans 40,000 y ago developed a system of conventional signs.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Numbers on the Visigothic Slates: A Cognitive Approach.Topics in cognitive science · 2026Article
- Article
- Origins of numbers: a shared language-of-thought for arithmetic and geometry?Trends in cognitive sciences · 2025Review
- Identifying potential palaeolithic artificial memory systems via Spatial statistics: Implications for the origin of quantification.Archaeological and anthropological sciences · 2025Article
- Art beyond cognition: reframing Neanderthal art through social connectivity and cultural transmission.Evolutionary human sciences · 2025Article
- An empirically-based scenario for the evolution of cultural transmission in the human lineage during the last 3.3 million years.PloS one · 2025Article
- Tangled Physics: Knots Strain Intuitive Physical Reasoning.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2024Article
- Symbolic innovation at the onset of the Upper Paleolithic in Eurasia shown by the personal ornaments from Tolbor-21 (Mongolia).Scientific reports · 2023Article
- A 39,600-year-old leather punch board from Canyars, Gavà, Spain.Science advances · 2023Article
- Multiproxy analysis of Upper Palaeolithic lustrous gravels supports their anthropogenic use.PloS one · 2023Article
- What made us "hunter-gatherers of words".Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- A cultural evolutionary theory that explains both gradual and punctuated change.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2022Article
- The Challenge of Modeling the Acquisition of Mathematical Concepts.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2020Article
- What Early Sapiens Cognition Can Teach Us: Untangling Cultural Influences on Human Cognition Across Time.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
- Provenance, modification and use of manganese-rich rocks at Le Moustier (Dordogne, France).PloS one · 2019Article
- First data of Neandertal bird and carnivore exploitation in the Cantabrian Region (Axlor; Barandiaran excavations; Dima, Biscay, Northern Iberian Peninsula).Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Assessing the significance of Palaeolithic engraved cortexes. A case study from the Mousterian site of Kiik-Koba, Crimea.PloS one · 2018Article
- Introduction: The origins of numerical abilities.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Article
- The implications for education of an innate numerosity-processing mechanism.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Review
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
How and when did hominins move from the numerical cognition that we share with the rest of the animal world to number symbols? Objects with sequential markings have been used to store and retrieve numerical information since the beginning of the European Upper Palaeolithic (42 ka). An increase in the number of markings and complexity of coding is observed towards the end of this period. The application of new analytical techniques to a 44-42 ka old notched baboon fibula from Border Cave, South Africa, shows that notches were added to this bone at different times, suggesting that devices to store numerical information were in use before the Upper Palaeolithic. Analysis of a set of incisions on a 72-60 ka old hyena femur from the Les Pradelles Mousterian site, France, indicates, by comparison with markings produced by modern subjects under similar constraints, that the incisions on the Les Pradelles bone may have been produced to record, in a single session, homologous units of numerical information. This finding supports the view that numerical notations were in use among archaic hominins. Based on these findings, a testable five-stage scenario is proposed to establish how prehistoric cultures have moved from number sense to the use of number symbols.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The origins of numerical abilities'.
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