Algebra in Cuneiform: Introduction to an Old Babylonian Geometrical Technique

Algebra in Cuneiform: Introduction to an Old Babylonian Geometrical Technique

Algebra

his textbook analyzes a number of texts in “conformal translation,” that is, a translation in which the same Babylonian term is always translated in the same way and, more importantly, in which different terms are always translated differently. Appendixes are provided for readers who are familiar with basic Assyriology but otherwise philological details are avoided. All of these texts are from the second half of the Old Babylonian period, that is, 1800–1600 BCE. It is indeed during this period that the “algebraic” discipline, and Babylonian mathematics in general, culminates.

Jens Høyrup

http://edition-open-access.de/media/textbooks/2/textbooks2.pdf

Edition Open Access

2017

Baihaqi

Creative Commons

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English

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