Ethnomathematics and cognitive anthropology: Mensuration and cognitive shifts in Mycenaean and alphabetic Greek

This paper, starting with the cognitive origin of surface measurement systems in Ancient Greece and the historical change they underwent, aims to address numerical cognition, its universal foundations and the influence of cultural variation upon it. Mensuration systems emerge from universal cognitive sources, human body, nature, context sensitive modifications, units based on agriculture and human labour, and are transferrable. The diversity of land measurements is due to the non-atomic nature of landscapes, so human cognition individuates them differently. The evidence presented here confirms Piaget’s constructivist theory of meaning: numerical meaning is constructed through observation of nature and social discourse.