[nnamtr]

I always wonder when I read articles like this, what people would think if they were told that 78000 summers later many people will be thinking about this specific burial.

[f6v]

They'd ask: "What is 78000?"

[1123581321]

Evidence of humans quantifying is roughly as old as this burial. The communication difficulty here would come from translating 78,000 into their mathematical system.

[ShamelessC]

And yet the punchline is still valid because surely they have no concept of numbers that large without any sort of base system involved.

[1123581321]

Sure, if requiring a minimum of translation as a premise (i.e. not introducing the concept of orders into the language via explanation.) Though I would be surprised if sexagesimal turns out to always be the oldest system we unearth.