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The First Securely Datable Mathematical Table in World History

Circa 2,600 BCE

Yale Babylonian Collection YBC 7289

Old Babylonian Period (19th-17th century BCE), southern Mesopotamia?
Acquired by the Yale Babylonian Collection by 1944


“The first securely datable mathematical table in world history comes from the Sumerian city of Shurupk, c. 2600 BCE.

Old Babylonian multiplication table

The Long Tablet of Gen-Gal, a multiplication table.

The table is ruled into three columns on each side with ten rows on the front or obverse side. The first columns of the obverse list length measures from c. 3.6km to 360 m in descending units of 360 m, followed by the Sumerian word sa (’equal’ and/ or ‘opposite’) while the final column gives their products in area measure. Only six rows are extant or partially preserved on the reverse. They continue the table in smaller units, from 300 to 60 m in 60 m steps, and then perhaps (in the damaged and missing lower half) from 56 to 6 m in 6 m steps. While the table is organized along two axes, there is just one axis of calculation, namely, the horizontal multiplications. Around a thousand tablets were excavated from Shuruppage, almost all of them from houses and buildings which burned down in a city-wide fire in about 2600 BCE, but sadly we have no detailed context for this table because its excavation number was lost or never recorded.” (Eleanor Robson, “Tables and tabular formatting in Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria, 2500 BCE-50,” Campbell-Kelly et al [eds]. The History of Mathematical Tables from Sumer to Spreadsheets [2003] 27-29).

http://www.historyofinformation.com/images/YBC7289.jpg

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1 Comentario.

  • mgdl dice:

    Estimada Dr. Vazquez: Digame, por favor, bueno, mejor a el. Que sucede con mi “criaturo”, que no me le contestan? Es Albert Frey. Todos podemos hacer errores y suspender, aún habiendo estudiado….Eso, de estudiar, yo, no lo se. Pero, si no sabemos que es lo que ha fallado, poco puedrá remediar el entuerto y el aprendizaje queda maltrecho. Si lee esto, digales por favor, a los de “guardia”, que le contesten. Aún que sea , que estudie mas…Un abrazo y un beso. Cuidese. Magdal
    Gracias por lo que ha colgado. INTERESANTISIMO!: La imagen del puente… Y allí se quedo hecho. El tesoro, por supuesto no.



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