Dr. Karenleigh A. Overmann
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Faculty Member, Archaeology
United States
My co-authors include
Annick Payne
Find me at
My Publications
Numerical origins: The critical questions
Journal of Cognition and Culture
December 2021
Four perspectives on numerical origins are examined. The nativist model sees numbers as an aspect of numerosity, the biologically endowed ability to appreciate quantity that humans share with other...
A new look at old numbers, and what it reveals about numeration
Journal of Near Eastern Studies
October 2021
In this study, the archaic counting systems of Mesopotamia as understood through the Neolithic tokens, numerical impressions, and proto-cuneiform notations were compared to the traditional number-w...
Finger-counting and numerical structure
Frontiers in Psychology
September 2021
Number systems differ cross-culturally in characteristics like how high counting extends and which number is used as a productive base. Some of this variability can be linked to the way the hand is...
The curious idea that Māori once counted by elevens
Journal of the Polynesian Society
March 2020
The idea the New Zealand Māori once counted by elevens has been viewed as a cultural misunderstanding originating with a mid-nineteenth-century dictionary of their language. Yet this “remarkable si...
Materiality and Human Cognition
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory
May 2018
In this paper, we examine the role of materiality in human cognition. We address issues such as the ways in which brain functions may change in response to interactions with material forms, the att...
Squeezing Minds From Stones: Cognitive Archaeology and the Evolution of the Human Mind
May 2019
Cognitive archaeology is a relatively new interdisciplinary science that uses cognitive and psychological models to explain archeological artifacts like stone tools, figurines, and art.
4E cognition in the Lower Palaeolithic: An introduction
Adaptive Behavior
October 2020
This essay introduces a special issue focused on 4E cognition (cognition as embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended) in the Lower Palaeolithic. In it, we review the typological and representatio...
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The Material Origin of Numbers examines how number concepts are realized, represented, manipulated, and elaborated. Utilizing the cognitive archaeological framework of Material Engagement Theory an...
Desana numerical symbols
Written Language & Literacy
December 2022
Early Writing
Visible Language
May 2022
<i>Reckonings: Numerals, Cognition, and History</i>. Stephen Chrisomalis. Cambridge: MI...
Journal of Anthropological Research
March 2022
Finger-counting in the Upper Palaeolithic
November 2021
Updating the “abstract–concrete” distinction in Ancient Near Eastern numbers
November 2021
The mind and madness in Austen’s novels
November 2021
Darcy and Emma: Jane Austen’s ironic meditation on gender
November 2021
The false dichotomy: A refutation of the Neandertal indistinguishability claim
October 2021
Neandertal–Homo sapiens reproductive isolation and the archaeological and fossil records
October 2021
Teeth, tools and human becoming
October 2021
A cognitive archaeology of writing: Concepts, models, goals
October 2021
Counting by "elevens" and why nine and two make twenty: The material roots of Polynesia...
October 2021
The material difference in human cognition
Adaptive Behavior
June 2020
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
The material origin of numbers: Insights from the archaeology of the Ancient Near East
December 2019
Materiality and the Prehistory of Number
May 2019
Cognitive Archaeology at the Crossroads: An introduction to Squeezing Minds from Stones
May 2019
On Tools Making Minds: an Archaeological Perspective on Human Cognitive Evolution
Journal of Cognition and Culture
May 2019
Constructing a concept of number
Journal of Numerical Cognition
September 2018
The cultural challenge in mathematical cognition
Journal of Numerical Cognition
September 2018
Situated Cognition
September 2018
Visuospatial Integration: Paleoanthropological and Archaeological Perspectives
January 2018
Concepts and how they get that way
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences
October 2017
Thinking Materially: Cognition as Extended and Enacted
Journal of Cognition and Culture
October 2017
Materiality and Numerical Cognition: A Material Engagement Theory perspective
December 2016
Bootstrapping Ordinal Thinking
December 2016
Number Concepts Are Constructed through Material Engagement: A Reply to Sutliff, Read, ...
Current Anthropology
June 2016
The role of materiality in numerical cognition
Quaternary International
June 2016
Beyond Writing: The Development of Literacy in the Ancient Near East
Cambridge Archaeological Journal
April 2016
Numerosity Structures the Expression of Quantity in Lexical Numbers and Grammatical Number
Current Anthropology
October 2015
Dynamics of Learning in Neanderthals and Modern Humans. Cultural Perspectives
Journal of Archaeological Science
September 2015
Creativity, Cognition and Material Culture
Pragmatics & Cognition
December 2014
Creativity, cognition and material culture: An introduction
Pragmatics & Cognition
December 2014
Book review: Cultural Development of Mathematical Ideas, written by Geoffrey B. Saxe
Journal of Cognition and Culture
July 2014
Cognitive Archaeology and the Cognitive Sciences
July 2014
The Evolution of Working Memory
October 2013
The archaeology of number concept and its implications for the evolution of language
July 2013
Material Scaffolds in Numbers and Time
Cambridge Archaeological Journal
February 2013
On the Nature of Numerosity and the Role of Language in Developing Number Concepts
Current Anthropology
February 2013
Numerosity, Abstraction, and the Emergence of Symbolic Thinking
Current Anthropology
April 2012
Prevalence of ADHD and Its Subtypes in Male and Female Adult Prison Inmates
Behavioral Sciences & the Law
March 2012
The prehistory of number concept
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
May 2011
Recursion: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?
Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Cognitive Science
November 2010
Numerosity, Abstraction, and the Evolution of Symbolic Thinking
Development and Psychometric Properties of a New Scale
