Foundations of Mathematics Buried in School Garbage (Southern Mesopotamia, Early Second Millennium BCE)
Fiche du document
12 janvier 2019
- handle: 10670/1.4m0756
- hal: hal-03995896
- doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-01617-3_1
Ce document est lié à :
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1007/978-3-030-01617-3_1
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess
Mots-clés
coefficient cuneiform mathematics curriculum factorization reciprocal scribal schools sexagesimal place-value notation volume coefficient cuneiform mathematics curriculum factorization reciprocal scribal schools sexagesimal place-value notation volumeSujets proches
MathCiter ce document
Christine Proust, « Foundations of Mathematics Buried in School Garbage (Southern Mesopotamia, Early Second Millennium BCE) », HALSHS : archive ouverte en Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société, ID : 10.1007/978-3-030-01617-3_1
Métriques
Partage / Export
Résumé
In this chapter, I suggest an analysis of mathematical texts based on notions, concepts and tools that were instilled during their early education in scholars who were active in Southern Mesopotamia during the Old Babylonian period (early second millennium BCE). The sources considered are mathematical texts from scribal schools that flourished in the Ancient Land of Sumer. I propose to examine the content of the garbage from these schools to access the "internal meanings" of advanced mathematical texts. First, I outline some characteristics of the mathematics taught in elementary education, drawing mainly from sources found in Nippur. Then, I discuss two mathematical texts in detail and show how they can be interpreted using the tools that were taught to (or invented by) their authors or users. The first example (CBS 1215) deals with the extraction of reciprocals by factorization; the second (CBS 12648) deals with volume problems using coefficients. The conclusion underlines the mathematical work that some ancient erudite scribes accomplished in order to emancipate them from the world of elementary education.