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Mathematics > History and Overview

arXiv:2302.13607 (math)
[Submitted on 27 Feb 2023]

Title:Floating calculation in Mesopotamia

Authors:Christine Proust
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    Abstract: Sophisticated computation methods were developed 4000
    years ago in Mesopotamia in the context of scribal schools. The
    basics of the computation can be detected in clay tablets written
    by young students educated in these scribal schools. At first
    glance, the mathematical exercises contained in school tablets
    seem to be very simple and quite familiar, and therefore, they
    have little attracted the attention of historians of mathematics.
    Yet if we look more closely at these modest writings, their
    simplicity proves deceptive. The feeling of familiarity primarily
    results from a projection on to the past of thought patterns
    ingrained from our own early learning. Careful observation of
    school tablets reveals subtle differences between ancient and
    modern notions of number, quantity, measurement unit, order,
    divisibility, algorithm, etc. In fact, we find a completely
    original mathematical world with rules of its own. This article
    explores the computation practices developed in scholarly milieus
    in the light of the mathematical basics that was taught in
    elementary education.

Subjects:          History and Overview (math.HO)
Cite as:           arXiv:2302.13607 [math.HO]
                   (or arXiv:2302.13607v1 [math.HO] for this version)
                   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2302.13607
                   Focus to learn more
                   arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite
Journal reference: Cuneiform Digital Library Preprints , 2016, 2016
                   (5), pp.2016-5

Submission history

From: Christine Proust [view email] [via CCSD proxy]
[v1] Mon, 27 Feb 2023 09:17:20 UTC (988 KB)
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