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2023-08-15 23:17 dustin  
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i know that in the previous cave, i announced that before the "7" cave i would put a special cave, but i reconsidered this and now i think it makes more sense to put the special cave behind the 7, 8 AND 9 CAVES.  
  
about this one:  
  
well, the basic thing you can see is that the sign for "7" never changed much in history - at least as far as scientists can trace it back (brahmi numerals, old india, 3rd century b.c.)  
  
it is absolutely not clear where these old indians had the sign from. and as usual with unclear things, there are a lot of different theories. two of the theories are:  
  
| earlier folks might have made a symbol out of seven strokes, and this sign might have developped to the "walking stick" you see in the first shape of the map. this sounds plausible if you followed this series so far, but of course it's hard to see seven strokes in the shape.  
  
| another theory says that some of the numerals might have been taken from the kharosthi alphabet, which was also in usage at that time. indeed the kharosthi alphabet has a letter which looks similar to the walking stick shape. more about this in the special cave (yes, this theory is what the special cave will be all about - the kharosthi alphabet and how it might have been a predecessor of some of our number symbols!)  
  
here's a nice image of the kharosthi alphabet:  
<a href="https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=l9w1iZcg&id=4B3055CEE1B2CEC7E7BE7E90C66086379D823C1E&thid=OIP.l9w1iZcgrHCjOHFiqFPInwHaLm&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR.97dc35899720ac70a3387162a853c89f%3frik%3dHjyCnTeGYMaQfg%26riu%3dhttp%253a%252f%252f1.bp.blogspot.com%252f-1Lqtx3WEEPI%252fUnTjKEKQMOI%252fAAAAAAAABgU%252fDRC7Rt3SVfE%252fs640%252fkharosthi.gif%26ehk%3dU3b1KiAi9HSGivEfx4dEEeE9NEp%252fEiraiY%252b9wNxgoBg%253d%26risl%3d%26pid%3dImgRaw%26r%3d0%26sres%3d1%26sresct%3d1%26srh%3d799%26srw%3d510&exph=470&expw=300&q=kharosthi+images&simid=607995528027590296&FORM=IRPRST&ck=648B1CCD9F2D1EC52F53C8636717891A&selectedIndex=0&idpp=overlayview&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0" target="external">https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=l9w1iZcg&id=4B3055CEE1B2CEC7E7BE7E90C66086379D823C1E&thid=OIP.l9w1iZcgrHCjOHFiqFPInwHaLm&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR.97dc35899720ac70a3387162a853c89f%3frik%3dHjyCnTeGYMaQfg%26riu%3dhttp%253a%252f%252f1.bp.blogspot.com%252f-1Lqtx3WEEPI%252fUnTjKEKQMOI%252fAAAAAAAABgU%252fDRC7Rt3SVfE%252fs640%252fkharosthi.gif%26ehk%3dU3b1KiAi9HSGivEfx4dEEeE9NEp%252fEiraiY%252b9wNxgoBg%253d%26risl%3d%26pid%3dImgRaw%26r%3d0%26sres%3d1%26sresct%3d1%26srh%3d799%26srw%3d510&exph=470&expw=300&q=kharosthi+images&simid=607995528027590296&FORM=IRPRST&ck=648B1CCD9F2D1EC52F53C8636717891A&selectedIndex=0&idpp=overlayview&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0</a>  
  
you can easily find our "walking stick" shape there, and maybe you also find some other familiar shapes we've seen earlier in the series ;)

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2023-08-15 23:32 dustin  
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about seed 7: it's used in bd1-g/2 and bd2-l/3. you can, for example,  nicely compare the area around the inbox in both caves and this one (in all three caves, the inboxes are close together) :d

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2023-08-15 23:39 DarkStoorM  
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 dustin , you left a little surprise in the bottom-right corner :D

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2023-08-15 23:39 DarkStoorM  
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Unless you just updated the cave :D

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2023-08-15 23:42 dustin  
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thx  darkstoorm ! the famous default exit again :d

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2023-08-15 23:43 DarkStoorM  
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I was so confused! I saw a flashing outbox, solved the cave, cloned to check it, it was gone :D

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2023-08-15 23:54 dustin  
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but you first wrote the "unless you just updated the cave" comment and then found your solution deleted, true? otherwise it would really be strange :d

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2023-08-16 06:06 Rob Gilbert  
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nice one, as always,  dustin ! :) a mysterious digit indeed!

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2023-08-16 19:49 dustin  
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thank you  Rob Gilbert  :)