13. Mathematics began in Africa with the Lebombo Bone
The ability to count and quantify the world around us is fundamental to human civilisation. This particular innovation all began in Africa during the Upper Paleolithic Era, and the earliest evidence for people adding-up comes from the Lebombo Bone. Named after the Lebombo Mountain range where it was found, this baboon fibula is marked by 29 notches along its length which most archaeologists have interpreted as tally-marks. Radiocarbon dating gives an age somewhere between 44, 200 and 43, 000 years ago. Debate about the object’s purpose only concerns whether the bone is a tally-chart or an astronomical calendar.
Much younger, but almost as impressive, is the Ishango Bone (c.20, 000 BC). Found in DR Congo in 1960 by Jean de Heinzelin de Braucourt, a Belgian geologist, the Ishango Bone is the fibula of a Baboon, and whilst its precise use remains a mystery, experts are near-unanimous that it shows evidence for arithmetic. For like the Lebombo Bone, along the length of the bone run deep scratches, which seem to be an ancient tally chart, showing that arithmetic was widespread in ancient Africa. The oldest non-African tally stick, from Czechoslovakia, is a mere 30, 000 years old.
