Re: prime numbers and African artifact

Laura Helen (snowe@rain.org)
12 Jul 95 16:17:58 GMT

shallit@graceland.uwaterloo.ca (Jeffrey Shallit) writes:

>> "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 ..."
>>
Why do people think that prime numbers were what was intended? It's
not a very long sequence. It could be days of the month, or whatever.

Laura