Ishango Bone
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The Ishango Bone is probably the world's oldest sieve of the small prime numbers.[1] A long history of racism against Africans in relation to mathematics led to a pre-disposition to see Africans as incapable of Mathematics and logical thinking [Zaslavsky[2], Boas[3], Conant[4]]. As a consequence of this, the Ishango mathematicians of stone age central Africa do not get enough credit for inventing the first known prime number sieve[1].
The bone, dated 20,000 BC[5], has 168 notches located in three columns, as depicted in the schematised representation of the markings. The bone depicts three columns: G or left, M or middle and D or right[6]. What the notches in the engraved columns of the bone mean has led people to various hypotheses [See de Heinzelin[6] (1962), Marshack[7] (1972), Pletser & Huylebrouck (1999)[8], Kamalu (2021)[1] and others ] .
According to one theory, smaller numbers have been added or copied many times to get larger non-prime numbers, because multiplication was not known[1]. For example, 6 = 3 + 3. [See Pletser and Huylebrouck , 1999, for regional examples of doubling from 3 through to 5][8] It is also observed that the numbers 1 and 2 are left unwritten. It is possible that the civilization of that time was in awe of these numbers and therefore they were not written down[1].
Initially, numbers 3 through 5 are copied. In this way, 6, 8 and 10 are obtained, to which the original number is added once again (for example, 3 + 3 = 6, 6 + 3 = 9). By doing this, prime numbers (in the range 1-10) are screened out, which cannot be formed by copying other numbers: 1, 3, 5 and 7. Next, the same was done in the range 6-10, i.e. 11, 13, 17 and 19 were obtained.[1]
The above proves that it could be a sieve of prime numbers.[1]. If so, the sieve predates the Sieve of Eratosthenes by more than 19,700 years[6][5] and calls into question the Greek origin of mathematics[1]
== References ==
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Kamalu, Chukwunyere (28 February 2021). "THE ISHANGO BONE: The World's First Known Mathematical Sieve and Table of the Small Prime Numbers". doi:10.31730/osf.io/6z2yr. Retrieved 19 October 2023. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ Zaslavsky, Claudia (1979). "Africa Counts: Number and Pattern in African Culture". Jstor: 152–155. doi:10.5948/upo9781614441052.038. JSTOR 40248107.
- ↑ Franz Boas [A course of lectures delivered before the Lowell Institute, Boston, Mass., and the National University of Mexico, 1910–1911.] (New York: The Macmillan Company. 1911. Pp. x, 294.) (April 1912). "The Mind of Primitive Man". The American Historical Review. doi:10.1086/ahr/17.3.587. ISSN 1937-5239.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ↑ Briston, D. G. (June 1896). "The Number Concept, its Origin and Development. By Levi L. Conant". American Anthropologist. A9 (6): 216–217. doi:10.1525/aa.1896.9.6.02a00010. ISSN 0002-7294.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Brooks, Alison S.; Smith, Catherine C. (1987). "Ishango revisited: new age determinations and cultural interpretations". The African Archaeological Review. 5 (1): 65–78. doi:10.1007/bf01117083. ISSN 0263-0338. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 de Heinzelin, Jean (June 1962). "Ishango". Scientific American. 206 (6): 105–116. Bibcode:1962SciAm.206f.105D. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0662-105. ISSN 0036-8733.
- ↑ Sieveking, Ann (December 1972). "Alexander Marshack: The roots of civilization. New York: McGraw-Hill; London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1972. 413 pp., 426 figs. $17.50; £5.50". Antiquity. 46 (184): 329–330. doi:10.1017/s0003598x00053953. ISSN 0003-598X. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ 8.0 8.1 Huylebrouck, Dirk (2019), "Missing Link", Africa and Mathematics, Mathematics, Culture, and the Arts, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 153–166, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-04037-6_9, ISBN 978-3-030-04036-9, retrieved 19 October 2023 Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help)
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