what is an ishango bone

Descendants of the Ishango people are believed to live in the Great Lakes region of Africa, particularly in the countries of Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the Ishango bone was discovered. These areas are where the ancient Ishango civilization was believed to have thrived.

Maths goes back to the stone age. We first found out that cavemen were counting when we discovered a bone with carvings in, called the Ishango Bone. It had ten scrapes carved out neatly on different sides of the bone, as if a caveman was counting in tens.

The Ishango people made a significant contribution to learning by creating the Ishango bone, which is one of the oldest mathematical artifacts discovered. It contains a series of notches believed to represent a lunar calendar or numerical system, showing advanced mathematical understanding for its time. This artifact offers insights into the development of early mathematics and numeracy.

Arithmetic (which includes the integer numbers) dates back to prehistory. The Ishango bone has carved numbers and that has been dated to over 20,000 years old. So the name of the discoverer has long been lost.