"On page 21 of Joel Shurkin's 1984 book, Engines of the Mind: A History of the Computer (W. W. Norton & Co.), he says: "A piece of bone found in Africa and dated at around 8,500 B.C. has engraved markings containing what appear to be representations of the numbers 11, 13, 17, and 19, all of which are prime numbers ..." Unfortunately, no further information is given. Does anyone out there know anything more about this artifact?

Please respond by e-mail; I'll summarized if there is enough interest."

"The bone is called the "Ishango bone". It dates to about 6500 B.C.E., and is in the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, Brussels. It has three columns of four notches, and one of the columns has 11, 13, 17, and 19 notches.

Here are some references:

[1] Jean de Heinzelin, "Ishango", Scientific American 206 (6) (June 1962), 105-116.

[2] Alexander Marshack, The Roots of Civilization, McGraw-Hill, 1972.

[3] George Gherverghese Joseph, The Crest of the Peacock, Penguin Books, 1991.

Thanks to all who replied."

Jeffrey Shallit, Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1 Canada

shallit@graceland.uwaterloo.ca

http://www.utm.edu/research/primes/glossary/IshangoBone.html

http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/Ancient-Africa/ishango.html

http://www.naturalsciences.be/expo/ishango/en/index.html

a rather strange (and seemingly defunct) proposal to send the bone into space