I had to make a HN account once I saw this title. I'm Nigerian. Benin City is clearly still there. The modern Benin city is very obviously divided into 'old Benin' and Benin city proper.

So no, not 'lost without a trace'.

Ha!

I was born and grew up in Benin City!!

In summary, the city definitely exist but we have refused to maintain our historical artifacts. Although it is easy to blame the "evil British" , I think we back home can do better to preserve historical stuff.

But the British really messed up a lot of places. But after a while we have to take responsibility.

It's really cool to discuss where I grew up in a global platform though.

Google satellite view of modern-day Benin City shows clear evidence of past earthworks in the countryside surrounding. In particular traces of an earthen structure runs northeast out of the city starting at about St. Savior Rd, through Urhokuosa, Erua and Ethor to Irrua. A distance of 50 miles, and perhaps further.

https://www.google.com/maps/@6.3474921,5.747339,27322m/data=...

Plenty of those early huge capital cities got lost. Angkor Wat, Edo, Vilcabamba, Troy, Helike, Ai, Aztlán, Ys, Shambhala, Xanadu, Carthago, Karakorum, Niniveh, Persepolis, Ur, Samarkand, ...

See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_city

I wonder whether there should be a word for the feeling you get when reading something like this and thinking "Please don't be the British again..."

Dammit :(

When I was a kid, I was frustrated by the absence of an RTS or city-building game set in sub-Saharan Africa. I continue to be annoyed by this.

Never heard of Benin... and after reading the article, I "knew": lost without trace, great culture, great wealth and great security for all its people..., great artists. And in the end - destroyed by the Britains.

Hm ... so after reading Wikipedia, I knew, it is not lost without trace, but the great Kingdom of Benin was also the great capital of slave trade, with human sacrifices(in the end about 23 a day) and all in all a deep despotic society, etc.

But the artists are indeed great.

This is the fifth of a fifty-part series Jack Shenker is doing for the Guardian. So far he's cranked out one-a-day.

Is the word "medieval" commonly used to refer to some African time period? My understanding is that the term refers specifically to the Middle Ages, which is a time period in European history, so it wouldn't make any sense to talk about a "medieval capital" in Africa (especially far away from the Mediterranean). The British only annexed Benin in 1897, long after the Middle Ages.

Notice all the hand-waving in the article about mathematics. Mathematics proper, as in the derivation of theorems from axioms by means of proof, was discovered by the Greeks, and unless the residents of Benin City, or the Maya, or any other non-Western society that biased academics seek to rehabilitate were similarly deriving theorems from axioms by means of proof as did Euclid, speaking of their supposed mathematical prowess is extremely disingenuous and misleading.

Slave trade kills cities and cultures.

Mathematics as far as it being a branch of logic was pretty much invented by the greeks as you say.

And the mathematics mentioned in this article are definitely 'tenuous' at best. I clicked on the 'African Fractals' and didn't really see anything that I would consider mathematics, although I did see some organizing principals I guess.

However the claim that mathematics is either 'theorems' or bust is not really valid standpoint in general... seeking one must by a practical definition of mathematics include at least Egyptians (at least in practical geometry), early South American (at least in practical geometry). Neither of which had any strong belief in the necessity or ideal of 'proving' theorems. Further one should include without doubt early Indian contributions which covered both practical and theoretical mathematics and early Chinese contributions although they seem grounded in theorem based approach

Echoing other comments, the importance of "proof" in math has not been universal even in West. For example, the rigorous definition of derivatives[1] was not given until 1817, 130 years after Newton's Principia was published.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(%CE%B5,_%CE%B4)-definition_of...

What? No. There's way more examples, but the ones that most come to mind are the calendars of the Mayan and Incan civilizations. If that's not mathematics, what is it?

> Mathematics proper, as in the derivation of theorems from axioms by means of proof

That is an extremely narrow definition [1]. It is acceptable to me as someone who works in the intersection of technology and mathematics -- but for the general public the word implies a wide field of study, exploration and usage.

For example, on Wikipedia "Mathematics (from Greek μάθημα máthēma, “knowledge, study, learning”) is the study of topics such as quantity (numbers), structure, space, and change."

So all the author is saying that the residents of Benin City seem to have studied fractal patterns in some form and used them in art.

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[1] Although, reading your comment more carefully, you did qualify it with "mathematics proper". I guess my comment's whole point is that it's often "mathematics improper" when used by a popular columnist.