%I A100000
%S A100000 3,6,4,8,10,5,5,7
%N A100000 Middle column of marks found on the oldest object with logical carvings, 
               the 22000-year-old Ishango bone from the Congo.
%C A100000 The other two columns on the rod are: 11, 13, 17, 19 and 11, 21, 19, 
               9. See "Deciphering the Bone" at the first Brussels Museum for Natural 
               Sciences link.
%C A100000 This appears to be the oldest known mathematical object.
%C A100000 "The bone owes its name to the site where it was discovered. Ishango 
               is in the Congo, 15 km from of the Equator, on the bank of the Edward 
               lake. This large African lake, one of the sources of the Nile, is 
               77 km long and 42 km wide. The area is close to the Virunga National 
               Park and the Congo-Uganda border." - Brussels Museum for Natural 
               Sciences
%D A100000 G. G. Joseph, The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics, 
               Penguin Books, London, 1992.
%D A100000 D. Olivastro, Ancient Puzzles, Chap. 1 "The First Etches" pp. 7-30 Bantam 
               Books NY 1993.
%D A100000 V. Pletser and D. Huylebrouck, The Ishango artifact: the missing base 
               12 link, Proc. Katachi Univ. Symmetry Congress (KUS2), Paper C11, 
               Tsukuba Univ., Japan, 18 Nov. 1999; Forma 14-4, 339-346.
%D A100000 Claudia Zaslavsky, Africa Counts, Lawrence Hill Books, New York, 1973.
%D A100000 D. Huylebrouck, "L'Afrique, berceau des mathematiques", in Mathematiques 
               exotiques pp. 46-50, Dossier No. 47, Pour La Science 2005 Paris.
%D A100000 M. Grousson, "Depuis quand compte-t-on ?" in 'Science & Vie', pp. 58-61, 
               No. 1080 2007 Mondadori/Excelsior Publications Paris.
%H A100000 Brussels Museum for Natural Sciences, <a href="http://www.naturalsciences.be/
               expo/ishango/en/">The Ishango Bone Exhibition</a>.
%H A100000 Brussels Museum for Natural Sciences, <a href="a100000b.gif">The Ishango 
               Bone</a>.
%H A100000 Free University of Brussels, <a href="http://www.ishango.be/">Ishango 
               site</a>
%H A100000 D. Huylebrouck, <a href="http://etopia.sintlucas.be/~dhuylebrouck/Ishango_web/
               Ishango_web.htm">About the Ishango Artifact</a>.
%H A100000 C. K. Caldwell, The Prime Glossary, <a href="http://www.utm.edu/research/
               primes/glossary/IshangoBone.html">Ishango bone</a>
%H A100000 Wikipedia, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishango_bone">Ishango 
               bone</a>
%Y A100000 Sequence in context: A136612 A004546 A154890 this_sequence A083682 A021278 
               A143940
%Y A100000 Adjacent sequences: A099997 A099998 A099999 this_sequence A100001 A100002 
               A100003
%K A100000 fini,full,nonn,nice
%O A100000 1,1
%A A100000 Dirk Huylebrouck (Huylebrouck(AT)gmail.com), Nov 07 2004