Campus Sculpture Tour

Paul Theodore Granlund

ALPHA AND OMEGA SUNDIAL, 1990
Cast bronze with brass gnomon
? x 142 x 126 ¼ inches
In Memory of Harriet M. Gale by the Class of 1939 and Friends

Numeral Sources
Listed by Paul Theodore Granlund, artist

Top row:

Computer numerals from check blanks for Nicollet County Bank, St. Peter, Minn.

Bottom Row:

6
From a Spanish manuscript dated 976, containing the earliest known example of Hindu-Arabic numerals in Europe.

7
Roman numerals, the most commonly used numerical symbols in the Western world until the end of the Renaissance in Europe, c. 1500s.

8
Numerals used in the ancient Assyrian culture at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.

9
Modern Ethiopian numeration, an example of Semitic numerical traditions.

10
The Arabic letter ya, associated with the number value ten, as used by Eastern Arabs.

11
Hindu-Arabic numerals derived from the ancient Brahmi script of India, the earliest known alphabet to use single symbols indicating numerical amounts.

12
An example of Brahmi numeration (see 11 above) as currently used in Nepal.

1
Another form of the Hindu-Arabic numerals which evolved from Brahmi script (see 11 and 12 above), this one used in Thailand.

2
From China, elaborate official numeral seals used for financial transactions to lend importance to documents and to prevent fraud or counterfeiting.

3
Classic numeral forms as used both in China and in Japan.

4
A tanget (knotted string), used in Papua New Guinea for such things as marking off days between trade meetings.

5
In many Polynesian languages the typical word for five is simply their name for hand, which is held up to denote it.

6
Shell counting, often using cowries, prevalent in many Pacific island cultures.