African Mathematics thread

[oshun]

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.

[jari]

Ive never heard of the Lemombo Bone only the Islango Bone..

The most interesting, of a large number of tools discovered in 1960 at Ishango, is a bone tool handle called the Ishango Bone (now located on the 19th floor of the Royal Institute for Natural Sciences of Belgium in Brussels, and can only be seen on special demand). At one end of the Ishango Bone is a piece of quartz for writing, and the bone has a series of notches carved in groups (shown below). It was first thought these notches were some kind of tally marks as found to record counts all over the world. However, the Ishango bone appears to be much more than a simple tally. The markings on rows (a) and (b) each add to 60. Row (b) contains the prime numbers between 10 and 20. Row (a) is quite consistent with a numeration system based on 10, since the notches are grouped as 20 + 1, 20 - 1, 10 + 1, and 10 - 1. Finally, row (c) seems to illustrate for the method of duplication (multiplication by 2) used more recently in Egyptian multiplication. Recent studies with microscopes illustrate more markings and it is now understood the bone is also a lunar phase counter. Who but a woman keeping track of her cycles would need a lunar calendar? Were women our first mathematicians?

More on Egyptian Multiplication..

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih1ZWE3pe9o


Also the Same as Ethiopian Muliplication

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFqecEgdbc0

The Ethiopians/Egyptians/Nubains and Asians all used this type of math. The Ishango bone uses the same method as the Ethiopians and the Egyptians.

[sundiata]

Can't forget Ron Eglash in any discussion on African mathematics.

www.ted.com/talks/ron_eglash_on_african_fractals.html

[anansi]

The Lembo Bones

Binary 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.