Karenleigh A. Overmann

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Karenleigh A. Overmann is a cognitive archaeologist known for her work on how ancient societies became numerate and literate.[1] With Frederick L. Coolidge, she currently co-directs the Center for Cognitive Archaeology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, where she also teaches as an Assistant Professor (Adjoint) of Anthropology.[1] Before becoming an academic researcher, Overmann served 25 years of active duty in the U.S. Navy.[2]

Education

Overmann completed her doctorate in archaeology in 2016 at the University of Oxford as a Clarendon Scholar[2] under the supervision of Lambros Malafouris and Chris Gosden.[3] From 2018 to 2020, Overmann was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Bergen, Norway (project 785793).[4]

Work on numeracy

Overmann has analyzed counting artifacts from the Ancient Near East, including fingers, tallies, tokens, and notations, proposing that numbers are realized and elaborated through the use of material forms that make the innate sense of number tangible and tractable to manipulation.[3][5][6] This work has been highlighted as "a naturalistically plausible account of the emergence of the modern natural number concept."[7]: S530  Overmann expanded the catalogue of Near Eastern tokens published by Denise Schmandt-Besserat in 1992[8] with over 2,300 new entries.[3][9] The results of analyzing the updated token catalogue were published in 2019 as a component of Overmann's book, The Material Origin of Numbers.

She has also investigated the traditional counting methods used in Oceania, particularly Polynesia; this research solved two mysteries of several centuries' standing: what was meant by the claim that Māori counted by "elevens" and why the Hawaiian word for twenty, iwakalua, meant "nine and two."[4][10] She coined the term "ephemeral abacus" to refer to temporary material forms with inherent place value (exponential structure), including collaborative finger-counting and counting by sorting.[4] In 2021, she published a detailed comparison of Polynesian and Mesopotamian numbers, both of which use object-specified counting sequences; the more recent counting practices of Polynesia provide a new way to understand how such counting would have worked in ancient times.[11]

Work on early writing systems and literacy

Overmann has analyzed early writing in Mesopotamia, showing how script and literacy emerged from the practice of handwriting small pictures over the course of about 15 centuries of time.[12][13][14][15][16] Often working in conjunction with archaeologist Thomas G. Wynn, she has applied insights gained from her analyses of the way writing changes over time to stone tools in the Lower Paleolithic.[17][18][19]

Other work

With her colleagues Thomas Wynn and Frederick L. Coolidge, Overmann has written about the cognitive differences between Neandertals and contemporary Homo sapiens and the implications for Neandertal extinction.[20] She has also analyzed Jane Austen's novel Emma as a gender-reversed version of Pride and Prejudice[21] and written about conceptions of the mind and madness in the Regency era.[22]

Selected works

Authored books

  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2019). The Material Origin of Numbers: Insights from the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Gorgias Studies in the Ancient Near East 14. Gorgias Press. ISBN 9781463207434.

Edited volumes

  • Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Coolidge, Frederick L., eds. (2019). Squeezing Minds from Stones: Cognitive Archaeology and the Evolution of the Human Mind. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190854614.
  • Gabriel, Gösta; Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Payne, Annick, eds. (2021). Signs – Sounds – Semantics. Nature and Transformation of Writing Systems in the Ancient Near East. Wiener Offene Orientalistik 13. Ugarit-Verlag. ISBN 9783868353181.
  • Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Coolidge, Frederick L., eds. (2023). The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192895950.

Special journal issues

  • Malafouris, Lambros; Gosden, Chris; Overmann, Karenleigh A., eds. (2014). "Creativity, Cognition & Material Culture". Pragmatics and Cognition. 22 (1).
  • Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Malafouris, Lambros, eds. (2021). "4E Cognition in the Lower Palaeolithic". Adaptive Behavior. 29 (2).

Articles

  • Coolidge, Frederick L.; Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2012). "Numerosity, Abstraction, and the Emergence of Symbolic Thinking". Current Anthropology. 53 (2): 204–225.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2013). "Material Scaffolds in Numbers and Time". Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 23 (1): 19–39.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2015). "Numerosity Structures the Expression of Quantity in Lexical Numbers and Grammatical Number". Current Anthropology. 56 (5): 638–653.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2016). "Beyond Writing: The Development of Literacy in the Ancient Near East". Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 267 (2): 285–303.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2016). "The Role of Materiality in Numerical Cognition". Quaternary International. 405: 42–51.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2017). "Thinking Materially: Cognition as Extended and Enacted". Journal of Cognition and Culture. 17 (3–4): 381–400.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2018). "Constructing a Concept of Number". Journal of Numerical Cognition. 4 (2): 464–493.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2018). "Updating the 'Abstract–Concrete' Distinction in Ancient Near Eastern Numbers". Cuneiform Digital Library Journal. 1: 1–22.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Wynn, Thomas (2019). "Materiality and Human Cognition". Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. 26 (2): 457–478.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Wynn, Thomas (2019). "On Tools Making Minds: An Archaeological Perspective on Human Cognitive Evolution". Journal of Cognition and Culture. 19 (1–2): 39–58.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2020). "The Curious Idea that Māori Once Counted by Elevens, and the Insights It Still Holds for Cross-Cultural Numerical Research". Journal of the Polynesian Society. 129 (1): 59–84.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2021). "Finger-counting and Numerical Structure". Frontiers in Psychology. 12: 723492.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2021). "A New Look at Old Numbers, and What It Reveals about Numeration". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 80 (2): 291–321.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2021). "Numerical Origins: The Critical Questions". Journal of Cognition and Culture. 21 (5): 449–468.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2022). "Early Writing: A Cognitive Archaeological Perspective on Literacy and Numeracy". Visible Language. 56 (1): 8–44.

Book chapters

  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2017). "Materiality and Numerical Cognition: A Material Engagement Theory Perspective". In Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (eds.). Cognitive Models in Palaeolithic Archaeology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190204112.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2019). "Materiality and the Prehistory of Number". In Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Coolidge, Frederick L. (eds.). Squeezing Minds from Stones: Cognitive Archaeology and the Evolution of the Human Mind. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190854614.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2021). "A Cognitive Archaeology of Writing: Concepts, Models, Goals". In Boyes, Philip; Steele, Philippa; Astoreca, Natalia Elvira (eds.). The Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Practices. Oxbow. ISBN 9781789254815.
  • Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2021). "Writing System Transmission and Change: A Neurofunctional Perspective". In Gabriel, Gösta; Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Payne, Annick (eds.). Signs – Sounds – Semantics. Nature and Transformation of Writing Systems in the Ancient Near East. Ugarit-Verlag. ISBN 9783868353181.

References

  1. ^ a b "UCCS Center for Cognitive Archaeology Faculty". University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. 2021. Retrieved June 3, 2021.
  2. ^ a b "From the US Navy to an Archaeology DPhil at Oxford…". University of Oxford. November 15, 2013. Retrieved June 3, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2019). The Material Origin of Numbers: Insights from the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. ISBN 9781463207434.
  4. ^ a b c Overmann, Karenleigh A (2020). "The Curious Idea that Māori Once Counted by Elevens, and the Insights It Still Holds for Cross-Cultural Numerical Research". Journal of the Polynesian Society. 129 (1): 59–84. doi:10.15286/jps.129.1.59-84. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  5. ^ Barras, Colin (2021). "How Did Neanderthals and Other Ancient Humans Learn to Count?". Nature. 594 (7861): 22–25. doi:10.1038/d41586-021-01429-6. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 34079134. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  6. ^ "On the Origin of Numbers". 2021. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  7. ^ Zahidi, Karim (2021). "Radicalizing Numerical Cognition". Synthese. 198 (1): 529–545. doi:10.1007/s11229-020-02956-x. S2CID 229433621.
  8. ^ Schmandt-Besserat, Denise (1992). Before Writing: From Counting to Cuneiform, Vol. II. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. ISBN 9780292707832.
  9. ^ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2016), Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Tokens, Unpublished, retrieved November 2, 2021
  10. ^ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2020). "Counting by "Elevens" and Why Nine and Two make Twenty: The Material Roots of Polynesian Numbers". Journal of Mathematics and Culture. 15 (3): 1–32. Retrieved June 3, 2021.
  11. ^ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2021). "A New Look at Old Numbers, and What It Reveals about Numeration". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 80 (2): 291–321. Retrieved October 23, 2021.
  12. ^ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2016). "Beyond Writing: The Development of Literacy in the Ancient Near East". Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 26 (2): 285–303. doi:10.1017/S0959774316000019. S2CID 163840618.
  13. ^ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2021). "A Cognitive Archaeology of Writing: Concepts, Models, Goals". In Boyes, Philip; Steele, Philippa; Astoreca, Natalia Elvira (eds.). The Social and Cultural Contexts of Historic Writing Practices. Oxford: Oxbow. pp. 55–72. ISBN 9781789254785.
  14. ^ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2018), The reorganization of writing as script and literacy, Unpublished, retrieved November 2, 2021
  15. ^ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2021). "Writing System Transmission and Change: A Neurofunctional Perspective". In Gabriel, Gösta; Overmann, Karenleigh A; Payne, Annick (eds.). Signs – Sounds – Semantics. Nature and Transformation of Writing Systems in the Ancient Near East. Wiener Offene Orientalistik 13. Wein: Ugarit-Verlag. pp. 93–116.
  16. ^ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2022). "Early Writing: A Cognitive Archaeological Perspective on Literacy and Numeracy". Visible Language. 56 (1): 8–44.
  17. ^ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2021). "The Material Difference in Human Cognition". Adaptive Behavior. 29 (2): 123–136. doi:10.1177/1059712320930738. S2CID 225657095.
  18. ^ Overmann, Karenleigh A; Wynn, Thomas (2019). "Materiality and human cognition". Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. 26 (2): 457–478. doi:10.1007/s10816-018-9378-y. S2CID 149605602.
  19. ^ Overmann, Karenleigh A; Wynn, Thomas (2019). "On Tools Making Minds: An Archaeological Perspective on Human Cognitive Evolution". Journal of Cognition and Culture. 19 (1–2): 39–58. doi:10.1163/15685373-12340047.
  20. ^ Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A; Coolidge, Frederick L (2016). "The false dichotomy: A refutation of the Neandertal indistinguishability claim". Journal of Anthropological Sciences. 94 (94): 201–221. doi:10.4436/jass.94022. PMID 26708102.
  21. ^ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2009). "Darcy and Emma: Jane Austen's ironic meditation on gender". Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal. 31: 222–235. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  22. ^ Overmann, Karenleigh A (2009). "Cartesian Dualism, Real and Literary Madness in the Regency, and the Mind and Madness in Austen's Novels". Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal. 35: 109–128. Retrieved June 5, 2020.

See also

External links

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