How Old Are the Platonic Solids?

Recently a belief has spread that the set of five Platonic solids has been known since prehistoric times, in the form of carved stone balls from Scotland, dating from the Neolithic period. A photograph of a group of these objects has even been claimed to show mathematical understanding of the regula...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Best Writing on Mathematics 2013 Vol. 4; pp. 149 - 162
Main Author Lloyd, David R
Format Book Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Princeton University Press 19.01.2014
Subjects
Ancient philosophy
Anthropology
Applied anthropology
Applied sciences
Behavioral sciences
Charged particles
Communication systems
Communications technology
Cubes
Cultural anthropology
Cultural institutions
Digital communication systems
Electrons
Energetic particles
Formal logic
Geometric shapes
Geometry
Historical methodology
Historiography
History
History of philosophy
Internet
Logic
Logical topics
Mathematical logic
Mathematical objects
Mathematical physics
Mathematical set theory
Mathematical sets
MATHEMATICS
Microphysics
Museums
National museums
Particle physics
Philosophy
Physical sciences
Physics
Platonic solids
Platonism
Polyhedrons
Polytopes
Popular science
Pure mathematics
Symmetry
Technology
Tetrahedrons
Websites
World Wide Web
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Summary:Recently a belief has spread that the set of five Platonic solids has been known since prehistoric times, in the form of carved stone balls from Scotland, dating from the Neolithic period. A photograph of a group of these objects has even been claimed to show mathematical understanding of the regular solids a millennium or so before Plato. I argue that this is not so. The archaeological and statistical evidence do not support this idea, and it has been shown that there are problems with the photograph. The high symmetry of many of these objects can readily be explained without
ISBN:9780691160412
0691160414
DOI:10.1515/9781400847990-017