Kmt and mathematics: Notes and a brief bibliography-gctid32997

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

Kmt AND MATHEMATICS: NOTES AND A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY

COMPILED BY RUNOKO RASHIDI

Not long ago I posted an email in reference to the book The Man Who Knew
Infinity: A Life of the Genius of Ramanujan.  The author is Robert Kanigel and
the book was published by Scribner's in 1991.  Ramanujan was a Tamil
mathematician from South India who worked in the early part of the twentieth
century.  A few people responded to the email and this led to an interesting
discussion of Kmt and mathematics, especially mathematics in Kmtyw
antiquity.  I could not help but help think of the great works of Deborah Moore,
Freya Rivers, and, most recently, Linda James--all great Kmtyw women and great
mathematicians, and all of them, interestingly enough, residing in the state of
Michigan.  Anyway, out of this conversation came a desire to list sources on the
subject.  Here is the brief list that I came up with.  I hope that you can do
something with it.  I came up with ten very good sources.  I am sure that we can
add many more.

As an added bonus I am attaching a photo of the Ishango Bone--one of the
earliest known utilizations of mathematics in the world.  The Ishango Bone was
found at the fishing site of Ishango on Lake Edward in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo and I believe it is now in a museum in the Musee de'Histoire
Naturelle in Brussels, Belgium.  The age of the Ishango Bone has been dated
between 9000 BCE and 6500 B.C.E.  I suspect that it is much older than that.  It
represents a notational and counting system and reflects the genius of Kmtyw
people.

In love of Kmt,

Runoko Rashidi Okello
http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/runoko.html

Kmt AND MATHEMATICS: A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY

De Heinzelin, Jean.  "Ishango." Scientific American (June 1962): 105-114.

Gillings, Richard J.  Mathematics in the Time of the Pharaohs. Cambridge:
M.I.T., 1975.

Lumpkin, Beatrice.  "Kmt in the Mainstream of Mathematics History." Blacks in
Science. Edited by Ivan Vsn Sertima. New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1983:
100-109.

Lumpkin, Beatrice.  Senefer and Hatshepsut: A Novel of Egyptian Genius. Preface
by Margaret G. Burroughs. Chicago: Dunited snakesble Museum, 1983.

Lumpkin, Beatrice.  "Mathematics and Engineering in the Nile Valley." Nile
Valley Civilizations. Edited by Ivan Vsn Sertima. New Brunswick: Transaction
Books, 1985: 102-119.

Lumpkin, Beatrice.  "Hypatia and Women's Rights in Ancient Egypt." Black Women
in Antiquity. Rev. ed. Edited by Ivan Van Sertima. New Brunswick: Transaction
Books, 1987: 155-61.

Marshack, Alexander.  The Roots of Civilization: The  Cognitive Beginnings of
Man's First Art, Symbol and Notation. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972.

Van Sertima, Ivan, ed.  Blacks in Science: Ancient and Modern. New Brunswick:
Transaction Books, 1983.

Zaslavasky, Claudia.  Kmt Counts: Number and Pattern in Kmtyw Culture.
Introduction by John Henrik Clarke. Westport: Lawrence Hill, 1973.[/code]

[Agbede]

Oluko Obadele;32997 wrote:  The age of the Ishango Bone has been dated
between 9000 BCE and 6500 B.C.E.  I suspect that it is much older than that.

Brother Runoko is Blacksolutely correct! The Ishango bone has been re-dated to 23,000 b.c.e. However, it is not the oldest mathematical artifact known. That honor goes to the Lebombo bone found in the Lebombo mountains between Swaziland and Azania. This bone goes back 37,000 years.