Mathematical and Astronomical Texts from Ancient Mesopotamia by Prof Lis Brack-Bernsen
Prof Brack-Bernsen began the talk with a historical introduction of Mesopotamia. Often regarded as one of the cradles of world civilizations, Mesopotamia flourished on the Tigris-Euphrates river system and was home to the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian Empires.
The earliest evidences of Mesopotamian mathematics date back to 4000 BCE. Tokens made out of clay were used as pledges. The first number system or the proto-cuneiform was developed by 3200 BCE. These were pictographic in nature, often the impressions of common things like the sun, oil, grain, etc. By 2000 BCE, this had developed into the sexagesimal system of numbers. The sexagesimal numeral system, also called Babylonian number system, worked with 60 as the base. This is the source of the 60-minute hour, the 24-hour day, and the 360-degree circle. Although mathematics became a convenient tool developed from practice, the Mesopotamians believed that numbers were Goddess Nisaba’s gift to mankind.
Sophistications in arithmetic, algebra and geometry gave rise to astronomy. The Babylonians were the first to recognize that astronomical phenomena are periodic and apply mathematics to their predictions. Cuneiform tablets such as the EAE and MUL APIN were developed by 1400 BCE, which contained catalogues of stars and constellations.
The Old Testament and several Greek texts are important sources that speak of Babylonian astronomy. But the excavations in Mesopotamia started only in the 1830s. The first cuneiform was deciphered at Persepolis, by Niebuhr Rawlinson in 1850. Otto E Neugebauer and Jens Hoyrup are some of the prominent mathematicians, who among others, have successfully translated several table-texts and problem-texts.
Prof Brack-Bernsen illustrated several mathematical and astronomical applications used by the Mesopotamians with the help of snippets and images. She also outlined the goals and challenges for today’s historians and mathematicians. She called for the rediscovery of historical contexts and reconstruction of ancient concepts. The talk was followed by a question-answer session.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER –
Prof Lis Brack-Bernsen teaches history of science at the University of Regensburg. Her research interests include the history of astronomy and mathematics with special emphasis on Babylonian astronomy and its development. A mathematician by training, with physics and astronomy as subsidiary subjects, she was trained in the history of ancient astronomy and mathematics by Olaf Schmidt during her studies at the University of Copenhagen. She switched to the history of Mayan Astronomy for her PhD studies at the University of Basel, whereby she was sponsored by the Swiss National Foundation. After few years as a lecturer (Privatdozentin) at the University of Frankfurt and a stay as Visiting Fellow at the Dibner Institute, she became lecturer at Regensburg University in 1999. Three consecutive DFG research projects have enabled her to investigate the development of Babylonian Astronomy and to understand and reconstruct many empirical prediction rules written in Babylonian procedure texts. In 2006, she became a Professor at the University of Regensburg.
– By Akshay Patil
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