"Mathematical thinking, numbers and shapes had a long and interesting history in Africa. The earliest examples of mathematical objects in human history include the Lebombo and Ishango Bones found in Southern and Central Africa. What are these objects? What do they tell us? It must be understood that these artifacts are prehistoric. They are much older than civilization as we know it, older than governments, older than organized states and before the advent of sophisticated technology , as we know it.
"How did humans in prehistoric times keep track of different days? An answer to this question emerged when excavations in the Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains of South Africa and Swaziland led to the recovery of a small piece of a baboon fibula. Dating from approximately 35,000 BC, and 7.7 cm long, this artifact was found to be inscribed with 29 clearly defined notches.
"Though 37,000 years old , some writers nevertheless claim it resembles the calendar sticks still used by the San people of northern Namibia . Some think it represents a lunar phase counter suggesting that the proto-mathematicians who inscribed the notches were women using it to keep track on menstrual cycles. A menstrual cycle is approximately the same length as a lunar cycle. Other writers suggest that the bone demonstrated the existence of a refined accounting system helping early humans to grasp the concept of time. The general importance cannot be overstated : The Lebombo Bone represents the first clear evidence of calculation in human history."
P.9, "African Proto-Mathematics," AFRICAN MATHEMATICS: HISTORY, TEXTBOOK AND CLASSROOM LESSONS, by Robin Walker and John Matthews (2014)
