Mathematical Tablet

2600 BC - 2350 BC
Clay
Bismaya (Adab)
5.9 cm x 6.0 cm x 2.1 cm
A681

Oriental Institute Museum

Mathematical Tablet

This clay tablet is inscribed (in Sumerian) with the squares of two standard units of length, the cubit and the rod. Mesopotamian mathematics used the sexagesimal system of notation. This means that most calculations were based on the number 60 rather than the number 10, which is the base of the system in use today.

Collected by

Oriental Exploration Fund, University of Chicago
Excavated by The Oriental Institute 1903-1904



Multimedia

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

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.