Why read Mathematics in Ancient Iraq?

Book cover of Mathematics in Ancient Iraq: A Social History

Book description

This monumental book traces the origins and development of mathematics in the ancient Middle East, from its earliest beginnings in the fourth millennium BCE to the end of indigenous intellectual culture in the second century BCE when cuneiform writing was gradually abandoned. Eleanor Robson offers a history like no other,…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Mathematics in Ancient Iraq as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Amanda H. Podany

Author

Mesopotamian mathematics is a fascinating subject; their numerical system was based on 60, and the ancient thinkers were adept at many types of calculations and word problems. Hundreds of clay tablets reflect their advanced understanding of mathematical principles. Eleanor Robson explains clearly in this book how historians and mathematicians have interpreted the evidence, and she discusses not just specific mathematical texts, how they are understood, and the way ideas were expressed, but she also introduces the scribes who developed and learned it all, and even the buildings in which they worked. The book is a “social history,” as the subtitle…

From Amanda's list on the lives of real people in ancient Mesopotamia.