INCOMPLETE HAND PRINTS MAY RECORD TALLIES OR COUNTS:

Count or tally of four? Hand

Print with missing little finger.

Maltravieso Cave, Spain.

Public Domain.

For quite some time there has been discussion on the question of handprints in Palaeolithic cave art with missing digits. Originally proposed as evidence of Ice Age artists losing digits to frostbite or accidents, or alternatively digits that were cut off as sacrifices in a ceremonial context, they have been more recently been proposed as evidence of tallies, or numerical records.

Count or tally of four? Hand

Print with missing little finger.

Maltravieso Cave, Spain.

Public Domain.

"Perhaps the most mysterious aspect of Palaeolithic hand stencils is that on many examples one or more fingers are missing. Early theories saw this as reflecting fingers that really were missing from their subject’s hands, either through frostbite, accidents during flintkapping, or through ritual mutilation. The former have been rejected: these societies were certainly tailoring sophisticated clothing in order to survive the harsh Ice Age climate and mittens would not be beyond their technological ken, and no flintkapper, however unskilled, would sever an entire finger. Deliberate mutilation, perhaps as part of the rituals that accompanied a rite of passage or as punishment, remains a possibility. In many cases, however, two, three or four fingers are missing from stencils, and the deliberate removal of this number – which would render the hand useless – would be suicidal to small-scale hunter societies in such hostile environments. It seems far more probable that such stencils with attenuated fingers resulted from the deliberate bending back of fingers, which have been created experimentally. In some cases too, little fingers seem to have been deliberately painted over, adding strength to this observation. In such cases unskilled work results in the blurring of finger outlines, although most Palaeolithic examples are sharp, suggesting perhaps a degree of artistic familiarity and resulting skill." (Pike, date unknown)

Hand with extended digits

representing a count of five.

publicdomainpictures.net.

Four in a decimal
counting system.

It is relatively easy to see how hand prints with one to five fingers fully extended or folded/missing could be intended as a count of one to five. Examples of this are found in the Paleolithic cave art of Europe (as seen in the examples illustrated). But, what about hand prints that illustrate partial fingers, say three and a half fingers plus the thumb. If we say that the fingers portray a count or tally, does the half finger portray a fraction? While I cannot know for certain, I must confess that I do not feel wholly comfortable stating that the Paleolithic artist/mathematician is portraying a fraction. If I am to take this proposition seriously I need another explanation for the partial finger. Luckily there is another possibility that answers this question without the need to propose fractions - a duodecimal counting system (base 12). I will write about this possibility next week.

NOTE: Illustrations used in this posting were obtained from an internet search for public domain pictures. If any of these pictures are not public domain and were used mistakenly please inform me and I will give proper photo credit of remove the photo.

REFERENCES:

Everett, Caleb,

2017 Numbers and the Making of Us: Counting and the Course of Human Cultures, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Pike, A.W. G., et al,

Date unknown, Stencils in Upper Palaeolithic Cave Art, Dept. of Archaeology, Durham University, Durham, UK, https://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/all/?mode=project&id=640