oshun
Craftsperson
Posts: 40
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Post by oshun on Feb 6, 2012 13:29:51 GMT -5
Basically a thread to discuss the contributions Africa has made to math. I'll kick off by starting this off in the form of a question.
The Lebombo bone is a a baboon's fibula with 29 distinct notches, discovered within the Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains of Swaziland. From what things I've heard, it's often dated to around 35k years ago. However I have found no reliable source/research supporting this dating, that I can provide to people. Supposing the Lebombo bone does clock out to 35k years, that would make it perhaps the oldest display of mathematics, dating 5k years before tally sticks found in Czechoslovakia.
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jari
Scribe
Posts: 289
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Post by jari on Feb 6, 2012 13:53:16 GMT -5
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Post by sundiata on Feb 6, 2012 20:51:00 GMT -5
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Post by anansi on Feb 7, 2012 2:38:31 GMT -5
The Lembo BonesBinary calendars correlate antithetical realities such as male-female, life-afterlife and summer-winter. As such, binary calendars are metaphysical in nature and reflect the society’s mythology. The Lebombo bones suggest that the binary division of the calendar into summer and winter, with spring and autumn as transitional phases, is much more ancient than previously supposed. Binary calendars reflect a worldview in which there are vectors pertaining to the oppositions. One vector is the female principle (birth, new life) that dominates half of the seasons/periods. The opposing vector is the male principle (hunting, execution of judgment) that dominates the other half of seasons/periods. hermesphilus.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/binary-calendars-and-the-ishango-and-lebombo-bones/Thanks for the new info I had not came across this before,it goes to show cognitive thinking is not late in Africa in fact we are bound to re-think how ancient humans think,they were not brutish they are us.
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