By December 8, 2008 Read More →

Mathematical Tablet, c. 1790 BCE

Mathematical_Tablet_2

Two fragments of a 3,800-year-old clay tablet show a collection of geometry exercises and questions in Akkadian script that would have confronted young Babylonian scholars. Here students are asked to calculate the areas of various subdivisions of squares, useful knowledge in a society where farmlands were often laid out in long rectangular strips of different sizes.

Mesopotamia- The Mighty Kings, Alexandria, Virginia- Time-Life Books, 1995, p. 16.

Photo credited to The British Museum.

See also-

Comments are closed.