How did Neanderthals and other ancient humans learn to count?

Nicely written article.<p>I would guess that using numbers started around the same time that trade (bartering) started.<p>&gt; Peter Watson dates the history of long-distance commerce from circa 150,000 years ago.[0]<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Trade#Prehistory" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Trade#Prehistory</a>

That means they used to think with metaphors, i.e. a hunted animal is a mark in this bone. Also that bone is an information storage tool. In order to let others retrieve this data from the storage they first needed a language to share the metaphor.

This blog post from Stephen Wolfram which was featured on HN a few days ago seems relevant:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;writings.stephenwolfram.com&#x2F;2021&#x2F;05&#x2F;how-inevitable-is-the-concept-of-numbers&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;writings.stephenwolfram.com&#x2F;2021&#x2F;05&#x2F;how-inevitable-i...</a>

Well then, the number line is the conceptual descendant of that tally bone ? ;)