Our recent lecture really got me thinking about how narrow-minded we can be when considering mathematics. Before today’s input I had never really considered how our number system came about or in fact where maths in general came from. I found that discovering other number systems extremely interesting and creating our own was good fun too. This was also an opportunity to use some mathematical knowledge with creativity. Like many other groups in the class we tried to create a number system that symbolised the value of the number itself (1 dot for 1, 2 dots for the number 2, etc.), to us this seemed very logical. However had we placed our number system in front of someone from the Babylonian era, they would be completely baffled by our sense of logic.

After reading ‘Alex’s Adventures in Numberland’ I have discovered that the Babylonians were infact the first people to introduce a place holder. The Babylonians used a base 60 system (which is much different from our base ten system). The first column is for units, the second was for 60s, the next for 3600s. Comparing this to our system, (1, 10, 100, 1000) I feel like we have certainly developed a much more easily understandable system.

I have never really paid much attention or thought as to where maths originated from. Nor have I spent anytime researching ancient maths techniques and systems. After the lecture I decided to further research the Ishango Bone.

The Ishango bone was found in 1960 and is suspected to be more than 20,000 years old. Research claims that the bone is the fibula of a baboon and it was found on the shores of Lake Edward in the Ishango region. On first glance it looks like the bone is covered in tally marks, but there is clearly more to this artifact than simple tallies. Scientists believe that these marks are more than tallies, they are infact an indication that the Babylonians had a much deeper understanding of mathematics. Some scientists suggest that these marks follow a mathematical succession, others interpret the marks as some form of rule. What they can agree on is the fact that maths existed 20,000 years ago. This I find fascinating and extremely eye-opening as I’d been so narrow-minded in terms of maths believing it was something that had evolved and that all countries use a similar system.

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