Stone Age Counting
1 out of 3
What could these drawings, found in a cave in Spain, represent?
Problem
Stone Age Counting poster
These drawings were found in La Pileta cave in Spain and could be up to 25 000 years old.
What do you think these drawings represent?
Could they be about counting things?
What might 'stone-age' people count?
Might they be the earliest known number patterns?
You could try and make up your own way of recording counting.
Getting Started
Do you think the lengths of the lines mean something?
Why do you think some of the drawings have curved lines?
What are the similarities and differences between the drawings?
Student Solutions
Emilia, Emily, Hallam, Jesse, Maya, Mimi, Ruby and Zenamae from Enjoycation had the following ideas:
- They look like number lines
- The numbers aren’t very big (if counting in ones)
- It could be a calendar counting the days or the seasons
- Lines may indicate best times to hunt
- The spaces between the lines might be significant rather than the lines themselves
- We noticed some lines were longer or shorter and this could show e.g. daylight hours
- They may be keeping a tally of days since the last successful hunt
- The lines could indicate distance e.g. how far to good hunting grounds, maybe measured in trees
Thank you for sharing these thoughts with us!
Teachers' Resources
Using NRICH Tasks Richly describes ways in which teachers and learners can work with NRICH tasks in the classroom.
Why do this problem?
Possible approach
Key questions
Possible extension
Children could create their own way of representing numbers and/or they could find out about the La Pileta cave.
Possible support