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Quipu https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu

I remember an article about credit in stores in tiny towns in Spain. It was just a rod of wood with some simbol as a signature of the store. Each time you buy something ¿big? they add a mark, and when you get all the ¿10? marks you have to pay with real money.

IIRC, the oldest number recorded was some kind of lunar calendar in a bone, wit marks like

  IIIIIII IIIIIII IIIIIIII IIIIIII
  IIIIIII IIIIIII IIIIIII IIIIIII
Coincidence? (I don't remember the details, but the article was convincing.)



You're probably referring to the Ishango bone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishango_bone




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