Mathematical Tablet from Ebla, c.2350-2250 BCE

From CojsWiki

The scribes’ interest in Sumerian scholarly writings is also demonstrated by the presence in the Central Archives [of the palace of Ebla] of three “mathematical” texts. Catalogue number 322c is a list of composite signs for expressing large quantities in the sexagesimal system (used by the Sumerians). The first case expresses the number 36,000 as (60 x 10); next come a sign for 216,000 and two different signs for for 2,160,000. Finally, 12,960,000 is expressed by using the sign that expresses (10 x 602) x 60. The colophon of the tablet has been interpreted as “(According to what) has been established by the scribes of Kish: Ishma’-Il.”

The tablet is currently at the Idlib Museum in Syria.

Aruz, Joan, Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium BC from the Mediterranean to the Indus. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003.

See also:

• Ebla Tablets, 2580–2450 BCE
• Ebla Update, BAR 6:03, May/Jun 1980.
• Ebla and the Bible, Giovanni Pettinato, BAR 6:06, Nov/Dec 1980.
• From Ebla to Damascus: The Archaeology of Ancient Syria, Marie-Henriette Gates, BAR 12:03, May/Jun 1986.
• Ur and Jerusalem Not Mentioned in Ebla Tablets, Say Ebla Expedition Scholars, James D. Muhly, BAR 9:06, Nov/Dec 1983.
• Mathematical Tablet, c. 1790 BCE
• The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, 1575 BCE
• Mathematical Cuneiform Tablet, 19th century BCE
• Tell Harmal Mathematical Tablets
• Polygon Tablet
• Clay Multiplication Table