How Africa Civilized Europe; How Europe is in Denial
Greeks ‘borrowed Egyptian numbers’
By Paul Rincon
BBC Science
The astronomers, physicists and mathematicians of ancient Greece were true innovators.
But one thing it seems the ancient Greeks did not invent was the counting system on which many of their greatest thinkers based their pioneering calculations. New research suggests the Greeks borrowed their system known as alphabetic numerals from the Egyptians, and did not develop it themselves as was long believed.
Greek alphabetic numerals were favoured by the mathematician and physicist Archimedes, the scientific philosopher Aristotle and the mathematician Euclid, amongst others.
Trade explosion
An analysis by Dr Stephen Chrisomalis of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, showed striking similarities between Greek alphabetic numerals and Egyptian demotic numerals, used in Egypt from the late 8th Century BC until around AD 450.
Both systems use nine signs in each “base” so that individual units are counted 1-9, tens are counted 10-90 and so on. Both systems also lack a symbol for zero.
Dr Chrisomalis proposes that an explosion in trade between Greece and Egypt after 600 BC led to the system being adopted by the Greeks.
Greek merchants may have seen the demotic system in use in Egypt and adapted it for their own purposes.
BBC Science: Greeks ‘borrowed Egyptian numbers’
June 13th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
“How Europe is in Denial”, huh? The very existence of this article should have discouraged that conclusion, but I suppose such a lack of intellectual sophistication is predictable from you people. As you would know if you weren’t biased, the Egyptians have never been black. So an “African” influence, yes; but a black influence, no. So don’t get so excited. Westerners have risen far beyond simple computations anyway. The Egyptians never approached rocket science or nanotechnology, or computer and internet technology, or satellite and radio technology. So where does math count more?
June 14th, 2006 at 7:37 pm
Sceptic
You sound angry and confused. That one article must have surely deflated your ignorant hubris.
And ignorantly you have asked, what has Maths got to do with it. Like a complete innumerate goy that you are.
Maths is the key to it all. He who founded Maths, founded it all.
Jahdey
June 17th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
Africa is certainly in crisis today. But it is racist to assume that since the creation of the world Africa has not contributed to science nor influenced Europe. Aristotle, Plato, and Cicero thought of the rest of Europeans as barbarians. Chauvinism aside, Europe or the West is leading the world today because since the renaissance they borrowed from China, and the rest of the world. In ancient times, Greeks borrowed from Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc. What is Japan without China or Western influence. NOUS SOMMES TOUS DES METIS CULTURELS. By the Way China and India are rising up. Good luck Europe!
As for the blackness of Egyptians, this debate is over. Egyptians were clearly not British, German or French.
June 25th, 2006 at 5:48 pm
Well, thank you Mutombo for a breath of sanity between those bursts of jingoism. Egypt certainly WAS black, as archaeologists now recognize: Egyptian civilization formed from a mixture of Saharan (African Aquatic, the ancestors of modern W Africans) and Nubian-derived Neolithic Nile Valley farmers. And Greek was unique, not an imitation of Egypt, not a theft.
Métis sommes nous! Indeed that is true. All peoples have contributed. I continue to learn from peoples of many varied ancestries and cultural traditions. I don’t see why all these traditions and peoples have to be set against each other in an endless racialist competition. This is madness! Stop it!
April 21st, 2008 at 10:27 am
Wow I think you guys got horribly side tracked by turning this discovery into a race war. Some of you are using big words to sound smart and others are just contradicting theselves. Just relax and learn something