Cylinder with Mathematical Tables

1800 BC - 1600 BC
Clay
Original Site Unknown
13.8 cm x 11 cm x 10.9 cm
A7897

Oriental Institute Museum

Artifact Description

Cylinder with Mathematical Tables

This is the first known collection of mathematical tables written (in Sumerian) on a clay cylinder. It was either suspended from a cord or held upright on a post that passed through the hole in the center. The user would then spin the cylinder to the desired column. The inscription begins with a table of reciprocals and continues with 37 separate multiplication tables.

Collected by

Henri Frankfort, Field Director of the Iraq Expedition
Purchased 1930

Multimedia

An Early Clay Tablet
See how this early clay tablet used pictures to communicate.

What is Conservation?
Ever wonder what a conservator does? Oriental Institute Museum conservator Laura Laura D'Alessandro tells you all about her job in this video.

Suggested Readings

Hodges, Henry. Technology in the Ancient World. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1992.

Moss, Carol. Science in Ancient Mesopotamia. New York: Franklin Watts, 1989.

Walker, C.B.F. Cuneiform: Reading the Past. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.

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