New York: Highly sophisticated mathematical practice flourished in Babylonia some 1,000 years before the time of Greek sages Thales and Pythagoras with whom mathematics is said to have begun, an exhibition has revealed.
The exhibition of 13 ancient Babylonian tablets, titled 'Before Pythagoras: The Culture of Old Babylonian Mathematics', opened at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World last month, the varsity said.
The ancient tablets, which date from the Old Babylonian Period (ca.1900-1700 BCE), have been assembled from three important collections -- the Columbia Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University; the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; and the Yale Babylonian Collection, Yale University.
"It has long been widely recognised that many of the critical achievements of Western Civilisation, including writing and the code of law that is the basis for our present-day legal system, developed in ancient Mesopotamia.
"However, the stunningly advanced state of mathematics in this region has largely been known only to scholars.
"By demonstrating the richness and sophistication of ancient Mesopotamian mathematics, Before Pythagoras adds an important dimension to the public knowledge of the history of historic cultures and attainments of present-day Iraq," said Jennifer Chi of the university said.
Added university's Alexander Jones: "The evidence we have for Old Babylonian mathematics is amazing not only in its abundance, but also in its range, from basic arithmetic to really challenging problems and investigations".
The tablets in Before Pythagoras, inscribed in cuneiform script, cover the full spectrum of mathematical activity, from arithmetical tables copied by scribes-in-training to sophisticated work on topics that today would be classified as number theory and algebra.
In so doing, they illuminate three major themes: arithmetic exploiting a notation of numbers based entirely on two basic symbols; the scribal schools of Nippur, which was the most prestigious centre of scribal education; and advanced mathematical training.
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