Starting about 40,000 years ago humans started putting notches on bones. Many of them have 28 marks. The same as the number of days in a lunar month. The same as a woman's period.
These are the earliest indications we were aware of time. They are the earliest indication we knew how to count. These are probably the oldest things we have that were created by women for women.
Counting rescued humans from the unknown of time. We could now predict when things would happen. It would take a long time before knowing the passage of time would go from saving us to trapping us. When knowing how many days had passed and were left would turn into knowing when our ability to survive depended on when to clock in and when to clock out.
Appreciate the emphasis on women's empowerment but I understood there's a movement away from associating the lunar cycle with the menstrual cycle due to the long history of pseudoscience associated with it (and perpetuating the myth that all menstrual cycles are the same length).
As for the piece itself, I didn't understand that those were bones I was looking at but now that that's been explained I am loving the use of shapes and symbols here.
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