The Global Biocultural Record of Polydactyly: A Multi-Regional Analysis of Six-Digit Signatures in Osteology, Lithic Art, and Etymological Frameworks

This paper examines the global archaeological, osteological, and linguistic record of polydactyly — the congenital presence of supernumerary digits — across North America, Australia, South America, the Near East, and the Mesoamerican linguistic tradition. Primary data from Pueblo Bonito (Chaco Canyon), the Marra Wonga rock shelter (Queensland), Cueva de las Manos (Patagonia), and Waorani genetic studies is analyzed alongside cuneiform omen texts and Maya cosmogonic number architecture. The paper establishes a global pattern: the six-digit individual consistently occupied a liminal status between the human and the supernatural. The Maya position six (Uac — “to disentangle things from chaos”) is identified as the cosmological original of the connector-function attributed to the number six across downstream Hebrew, Kabbalistic, and Mesopotamian traditions.