The Story:
Back in 1894 archaeologists discovered an old clay tablet in what is now known as Iraq, a survival of Babylonia. They classified the tablet as Si. 427. It did not appear to be extraordinary. A more recent study of the tablet, now the property of the Istanbul Archaeology Museums, makes it turns out to be quite fascinating.
Significance:
The ancient Babylonians were careful students of geometry, and were familiar with what came to be known (more than a thousand years later) as the Pythagorean theorem. One of the mathematicians behind the new analysis of Si. 427, Daniel Mansfield of the University of New South Wales, in Australia, says: “With this new tablet, we can actually see for the first time why they were interested in geometry: to lay down precise land boundaries,” says Mansfield in the statement. “This is from a period where land is starting to become private—people started thinking about land in terms of ‘my land and your land,’ wanting to establish a proper boundary to have positive neighborly relationships.”
Strange New Worlds:
The discussion of land boundaries in Si. 427 now appears to be the oldest known use of applied geometry. Yet it is set out as if such calculations were a matter of routine, so it surely wasn’t the absolute first and more remains to be discovered.
