Bonjour, Marie-Ange! I have done a small amount of research into Native American astronomy and during that I encountered no indications of how quantities were specified. I suspect that they either did not bother to be very quantitative or that this is hard for us to find since their languages only rarely were written down. Native Americans had a very extensive trading system and elaborate trade routes, but their trading was probably done entirely face-to-face. "What you see is what you get." Perhaps local units were developed, but there was almost certainly no standardization.
I suspect that their counting systems were much like the pre-historic peoples of the Fertile Crescent and not very extensive. Their calendars were often fairly sophisticated however and rivaled first millenium in Europe, sometimes being even better. But even here, one would rarely have to count much past a few hundred. I have seen an explanation of the counting system of one of the Mesoamerican peoples and I don't recall it going past one thousand, if that far. Jim Marie-Ange Cotteret wrote: > > Dear All, > > I'm not too sure my question has its place on this list but I would like to > know how the Indians of America used to measure, dimensions, wood, land ... > before the European came into America ? > > Anyone could help me ? > > Best regards from Paris and many thanks > Marie-Ange Cotteret -- Metric Methods(SM) "Don't be late to metricate!" James R. Frysinger, CAMS http://www.metricmethods.com/ 10 Captiva Row e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Charleston, SC 29407 phone/FAX: 843.225.6789
