Harald Gropp

Prehistoric circles from Neolithic Times till Bronze Age: Was there pre-Euclidean geometry?

Abstract

This talk will be on circles in the early history of humans. Concerning the human environment the earliest cycles were astronomical ones, the disks of the sun and the moon. The disks of the planets are more recognized as points or stars. In early human drawings circles appear in various contexts.

In a rather more abstract sense the movement of celestial bodies are based on circles of different kinds. At the end of the Neolithic period the idea of a circle is materialized as the construction of wheels and wagons.

The second part will be more theoretical discussing different kinds of geometry. If we call our current geometry Euclidean, we should ask how did geometry look before Euclid and Ptolemy and Hipparcos. A singular but probably useful piece of evidence could be the sky disk of Nebra which is usually dated as 1600 BC. Its Interpretation may help to understand the importance of circles for prehistoric humans.

Biography

The author's interest of research is in mathematics as well as in the history of mathematics and astronomy. The focus in mathematics is on combinatorics and finite geometry and other graph like structures, mainly in configurations. These structures were born in the nineteenth century in the revolutionary period of geometry.

The focus of interest in the history of science is on foreign cultures such as the Celts or pre-Columbian America as well as on calendars and biographical studies of scholars of different centuries or cultural studies of, for instance, the Mandaeans.

 

 



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