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P R E H I S T O R I C
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M A T H E M A T I C S
Mathematics
Prehistoric Mathematics
Reporter: Ms. Galutera, Rachel Ann B.
Did you know?

Our prehistoric ancestors would

have had a general sensibility about
amounts, and would have
instinctively known the difference
between, say, one and two
antelopes. But the intellectual leap
from the concrete idea of two things
to the invention of a symbol or word
for the abstract idea of "two" took
many ages to come about.
 Even today, there
are isolated
hunter-gatherer
tribes in Amazonia
which only have
words for
"one","two" and
"many", and others
which only have
words for numbers
up to five.
In the absence of settled
agriculture and trade, there is
little need for a formal system of
numbers. Early man kept track of
regular occurrences such as the
phases of the moon and the
seasons.
 Some ofthe very earliest
evidence of mankind thinking
about numbers is from notched
bones in Africa dating backto
35,000 to 20,000 years ago.
But this is really mere counting
and tallying rather than
mathematics assuch. Lebombo Bone and the
Isango Bone
 Pre-dynastic Egyptians and Sumerians represented
geometric designs on their artefacts as early as the5th
millennium BCE, as did some megalithic societies in
northern Europe in the 3rd millennium BCE or before.
But this is more art and decoration than the
systematic treatment of figures, patterns, forms
andquantities that has come to be considered as
mathematics.
 Stonehenge,
prehistoric stone
circle monument,
cemetery, and

archaeological site
located on
Salisbury Plain
Wiltshire, England.
Why did
mathematics created
Mathematics do originate from the needs of:
and evolved?
People and the Community;

bureaucratic needs
agriculture
trade
so on....
 Conclusion:

It all began with simple

calculations using very simple tools.
Instead of using a MacBook air like
most of us do today, our ancestors
had an abundance of sticks and
rocks. Guess you can call them the
first variation of calculators.
 "Mathematics reveals its
secrets only to those who
approach it with pure love,
for its own beauty."

-Philosopher Archimedes (Father of Mathematics)

"Ad Astra per Aspera"