Mesopotamian mathematics

 

Early examples of mathematical writing appeared in Mesopotamia, between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates in present-day Iraq. A Sumerian accounting tablet from around 3000 BC features commodities such as barley; the three thumb-nail indentations at the top represent numbers. Their number system became a sexagesimal one, based on 60, which we still use in our measurement of time. 

The Mesopotamians (or Babylonians) later imprinted their mathematics with a wedge-shaped stylus on damp clay which was then baked in the sun. Thousands of these cuneiform clay tablets from 1900 to 1600 BC survive, and show a good understanding of arithmetic (including a very accurate value for Ö2), algebra (the solution of linear and quadratic equations) and geometry (the calculation of areas and volumes). 

The Mesopotamians also studied astronomy and were able to predict eclipses; in 164 BC they observed the comet now known as Halley’s comet – not in 2349 BC as stated on the stamp.

[Austria 1965; Bhutan 1986; Venda 1982]


Published/edited: 19/10/2015