Shape for the Item, Count for the Quantity: Mesopotamian Clay Tokens, as Schmandt-Besserat Reads Them
Series
44 pages
Data Physicalization
Knots, cubes, yarn, paper, beach trash, grains of rice, food. Reading cases that turned data into things you can touch, in chronological order, to learn how numbers are matched to materials.
Hollow or Solid Stems Sorted the Votes, and a Counting Board Laid Them Out: Voting Tokens in Athenian Courts
Easter Tables Become Turning Disks, Layers of the Body Become Lifting Paper: Movable Books of the Medieval and Early Modern Eras
Recording Numbers by Knot Type and Position on a Cord: The Andean Quipu
Winding 6,500 Years at 0.1 Inch per Year: Barbeu-Dubourg's Machine chronologique (1753)
Producing a Frequency Distribution by Dropping, Not Drawing: Galton's Quincunx
Filling the Gaps Between 106 Measurements with Plaster: Thurston's Copper-Tin-Zinc Alloy Model
Press the Keys in Order, and Territory Plates Cover the Tribal Map: Ives's Historical Map
Rearranging the Same 40 People into a Different Graph: Davenport's "Frequency Polygon Without Paper"
Stand a Frequency Table Up as Columns and the Ridge Shows Its Direction: Pearson and Lee's Stature Model
