The discovery of a 3,700 year old Babylonian geometric clay tablet called Si.427 is believed to have changed the history of mathematics long before the Pythagorean formula and its triangles.
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| Image credit: Science News |
This Babylonian geometry painted on clay tablets apparently changed the history of mathematics.
The ancient clay tablet was discovered in 1894 by the French archaeological expedition to Sippar in central Iraq and cataloged with many other tablets; however, its meaning was unknown until it was worked on this past few years.
A study by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) scientist was recently revealed.
The mysterious tablet already preserved in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum before Dr. Daniel Mansfield of the University of New South Wales study it.
Mansfield claimed that Si.427 dated to the Old Babylonian (OB) period from 1900 to 1600 BC. In other words, this clay tablet shows that applied geometry existed more than 1,000 years before the birth of Pythagoras. And this historic artifact called Si.427 has been in a museum in Istanbul for over 100 years.
Even after studying the object, it took months to fully understand how important it is, so finally being able to share it is really satisfying.
According to Mansfield's research, this is the only known example of a cadastral document from the OB era, a plan used by surveyors to define the boundaries of the land, in this case legal and geometric details in a field that it is shared after it was sold off.
This plan uses sets of numbers called Pythagorean triples to derive exact right angles, or sets of numbers that match trigonometric patterns to calculate the sides of a right triangle.
In wedge-shaped writing with the characteristic wedge columns, the board describes a swamp area, a threshing floor and the adjoining tower.
The rectangles that make up the field have opposite sides of equal length, which suggested to the surveyors of the time that the surveyors had found a way to make vertical lines more accurate than before.
Now, with Si. 427, we finally know what these Pythagorean triplets were trying to use to set the boundaries of the earth, noted Mansfield.
Interestingly, there is only one riddle that Dr. Mansfield has not solved yet: Directly on the back of the tablet, the sexagesimal number '25:29 'appears in Big Font.
However, Mansfield still couldn't figure out what those numbers mean.
References:
- http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/si-427-babylonian-clay-tablet-09934.html
- https://scitechdaily.com/incredible-3700-year-old-babylonian-clay-tablet-is-worlds-oldest-example-of-applied-geometry/
- https://www.sciencealert.com/this-3-700-year-old-tablet-shows-the-oldest-known-example-of-applied-geometry
- https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/aug/05/australian-mathematician-discovers-applied-geometry-engraved-on-3700-year-old-tablet
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