Recently there has been a breakthrough discovery in the archaeology of ancient mathematics.
Going back to 18,000 BCE (Before the Common Era) in Salutraen times in South Africa, Zaire, one of the oldest mathematical finds was discovered in Edward Lake. It consists of an antler bone carved by someone in Paleolithic society who was forced to re-locate by a volcano.
Nicely preserved are vertical notches in groups of three doubling to six, in groups of four doubling to eight and groups of 10 halving to five.
One column has all of the prime numbers between 10 and 20.
Another column has only odd numbers.
Each column adds to 48 or 60, both multiples of 12. It could be that the mathematical notation was in the base 6, which was used by Australian, South American and African tribes – cf. Abraham Seidenberg, Diffusion of Counting Practices – where the Gumulgal of Australia, the Bushman of South Africa and the Bakairi of South America all counted in two’s to six.
In 34,000 BCE, another find from Swaziland, South Africa, definitely Neanderthal, there was found a bone with notches adding to 29. This may have been an early moon-based calendar or a device to keep track of lucky days and unlucky days of the month.
The find is documented in Wikipedia.
Jim Casey, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at U.C. Berkeley, communicated these two finds to me…
Mr. Eisenberg, who resides in Tarzana, may be contacted at oren46@sbcglobal.net
