Mathematics in Ancient Iraq (eBook)

A Social History

Eleanor Robson (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2020
472 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-20140-5 (ISBN)

Infos

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, examining ancient mathematics within its broader social, political, economic, and religious contexts, and showing that mathematics was not just an abstract discipline for elites but a key component in ordering society and understanding the world. The region of modern-day Iraq is uniquely rich in evidence for ancient mathematics because its prehistoric inhabitants wrote on clay tablets, many hundreds of thousands of which have been archaeologically excavated, deciphered, and translated. Drawing from these and a wealth of other textual and archaeological evidence, Robson gives an extraordinarily detailed picture of how mathematical ideas and practices were conceived, used, and taught during this period. She challenges the prevailing view that they were merely the simplistic precursors of classical Greek mathematics, and explains how the prevailing view came to be. Robson reveals the true sophistication and beauty of ancient Middle Eastern mathematics as it evolved over three thousand years, from the earliest beginnings of recorded accounting to complex mathematical astronomy. Every chapter provides detailed information on sources, and the book includes an appendix on all mathematical cuneiform tablets published before 2007.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 30.6.2020
• Zusatzinfo: 24 halftones. 51 line illus. 60 tables.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Geometrie / Topologie
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Geschichte der Mathematik
• Schlagworte: accountant • Accounting • Addition • Akkade • Akkadian language • Amarna • And/or • animal husbandry • Apprenticeship • Approximation • Archaeological context • archaeology • Archive • Assur • Babylon • Babylonia • Babylonian mathematics • British Museum • bureaucrat • Calculation • Chaldaeans • circumference • Clay tablet • Commodity • Counting • courtesy • cultic topographies • Cuneiform script • date cultivation • decipherment • Determinative • diagonal • diagram • discrete counting system • Early Period • Ebla • Egypt • Elam • Enlil • ephemeris • Epigraphy • Euclid • female scribes • Greek mathematics • Hattusas • Hazor • Hectare • Hellenistic period • Hormuzd Rassam • Horoscopes • Illustration • incantation priests • incantations and rituals • Instance (computer science) • ISIN • Jargon • Kalûtu • Kisurra • lapis lazuli • larsa • lexical lists • Literacy • Literature • Logogram • Magi • Manuscript • Marduk • material culture • Mathematical problem • mathematical riddles • mathematician • Mathematics • Measurement • medical scholarship • Mesopotamia • metrological justice • Metrology • month • Multiplication table • narrative • Neo-Babylonian Empire • Neolithic • Nineveh • Nippur • Notation • numeracy • Numeral (linguistics) • Old Assyrian period • orality • Palaeography • Parchment • Pedagogy • Phrase • Plimpton 322 • Positional notation • Pottery • precepts • Prediction • proverb • Publication • Pythagoras • Quantity • R. • reed measure • Regular number • result • round numbers • Ruler • Sargon • Sargonic period • Scribe • Sexagesimal • shekel • Sippar • Sumerian language • Sumerian literature • Surveying • surveyors’ method • Technology • Terminology • textuality • Third Dynasty of Ur • timekeeping • Transliteration • Ugarit • Unit fraction • University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology • Uruk • Verb • Word problem (mathematics education) • Writing • year • Zagros Mountains • Ziggurat
• ISBN-10: 0-691-20140-4 / 0691201404
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-20140-5 / 9780691201405