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A Remarkable Collection of Babylonian Mathematical TextsOld Babylonian Metrological Table Texts

A Remarkable Collection of Babylonian Mathematical Texts: Old Babylonian Metrological Table Texts The various systems of measures for length, area, weight, and capacity that were being used in Mesopotamia in the Old Babylonian period were essentially identical with the ones that had been used in the preceding Neo- Sumerian Ur III period. Actually, although to a varying degree, those systems of measures had roots reaching far beyond the Ur III period. The system of area measures, in particular, had been in use in Mesopotamia since at least the proto-literate period in the late fourth millennium, a distinction it shared with the system of (non- positional) sexagesimal counting numbers. All the Sumerian/Old Babylonian systems of measures had one important property in common, namely that they were adapted to work smoothly together with sexagesimal numbers. This is apparent in the form of their respective “factor diagrams” (see below) where all the “conversion factors” are regular sexagesimal numbers. The connection between sexagesimal numbers and the various kinds of measures was that numerical operations involving measures, such as computing the wages due to a gang of hired workers, or the interest on a loan, or the area of a field, were normally carried out in the following way: First the given measures, expressed in the http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Remarkable Collection of Babylonian Mathematical TextsOld Babylonian Metrological Table Texts

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Publisher
Springer New York
Copyright
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007
ISBN
978-0-387-34543-7
Pages
101 –126
DOI
10.1007/978-0-387-48977-3_3
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

The various systems of measures for length, area, weight, and capacity that were being used in Mesopotamia in the Old Babylonian period were essentially identical with the ones that had been used in the preceding Neo- Sumerian Ur III period. Actually, although to a varying degree, those systems of measures had roots reaching far beyond the Ur III period. The system of area measures, in particular, had been in use in Mesopotamia since at least the proto-literate period in the late fourth millennium, a distinction it shared with the system of (non- positional) sexagesimal counting numbers. All the Sumerian/Old Babylonian systems of measures had one important property in common, namely that they were adapted to work smoothly together with sexagesimal numbers. This is apparent in the form of their respective “factor diagrams” (see below) where all the “conversion factors” are regular sexagesimal numbers. The connection between sexagesimal numbers and the various kinds of measures was that numerical operations involving measures, such as computing the wages due to a gang of hired workers, or the interest on a loan, or the area of a field, were normally carried out in the following way: First the given measures, expressed in the

Published: Jan 1, 2007

Keywords: Basic Unit; Multiplication Table; Basic Fraction; Complete Table; Factor Diagram

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