The history of counting
From technology to time , numbers play a HUGE part in our modern world , but it might surprise you to learn that hasn ’ t always been the case .
Our species has been around for about 300,000 years . For most of that time , our ancestors seem to have coped without counting . In fact , the earliest evidence of recorded counting is an artefact that ’ s just 20,000 years old ! Known as the Ishango bone , it ’ s a baboon ’ s thighbone covered in lots of little human-made scratches . These little scratches are tally marks , suggesting that people were beginning to count small numbers of things – perhaps items or days – by adding one mark at a time .
As human societies grew more complex , people had to find ways to keep track of larger numbers and perform simple calculations . Experts reckon humans began to develop a method of counting numbers beyond one , around 4,000 BCE , in what is now southern Iraq , then known as Sumeria .
Is it called SUMeria because it ’ s the area where they invented sums ? Ed
No . I don ’ t think so , but SUMeria WAS one of the earliest centres of trade . The people there did need to be able to count , add , subtract and record numbers for running their businesses .
The methods developed in Sumeria began to spread , and more complicated counting started to emerge in other parts of the world at around this time . Mathematicians expanded what could be done with numbers which , in turn , expanded what humans were capable of . The Egyptians realised that numbers could be used to measure things . Historians think it ’ s this that allowed them to design and build the pyramids !
( I wonder if they used graph papyrus ? Ed )
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