The bone that began the space odyssey

DOI10.1007/BF03026755MaRDI QIDQ2564032zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Dirk Huylebrouck

Publication date 23 April 1997

Published in The Mathematical Intelligencer (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03026755

zbMATH Keywords

Ishango bonepaleolithic notations

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in Paleolithic and Neolithic times (01A10)

Review text

The article describes the Ishango bone, an artefact possibly 11000 years old and carrying an ordered sequence of differentiated notches; it gives a brief account of the origin of the bone, and reports the arithmetical and calendaric-observational interpretations suggested, respectively, by J. de Heinzelin and A. Marshack, pointing out wisely that they must be presumed to be mutually exclusive.

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Cited in

(2)

• Do we do mathematics with our visual brain?
• Mathematics and Technology Before the Modern Era

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