3 ms·
Ishango Bone
- lifthrasiir 6y agoThe Ishango bone is so significant that the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS) has intentionally designated it as the 100,000th sequence A100000 [1]. [1] https://oeis.org/A100000 https://oeis.org/A100000
- ncmncm 6y agoWhat makes it hard to believe in its mathematical significance is how slipshod the scratches are; and the object's physical usefulness. I expect a thing meant for arithmetical precision to be itself precise -- not perfectly, but moreso than a random object scratched for other reasons. Also, that it was a tool makes the scratches seem much more likely to have been intended to maximize usefulness of the tool. That said, when Comock and his family returned from their island to mainland north Hudson Bay peninsula after ten years, Comock's wife had kept a tally of months on a tool she had carried and kept through many privations. So, it's possible, if it was a tool important to someone.
- daniel-cussen 6y agoThe Ishango bone author probably didn't seek to impress people 20,000 years later, the marks just had to be legible by him/her or people near him/her.