Babylonian Shadow-Length Schemes: Between Mathematics and Astronomy

John Steele

doi:10.35305/cl.vi20.82

Auteurs

John Steele Brown University

DOI :

https://doi.org/10.35305/cl.vi20.82

Mots-clés :

astronomy, gnomon, scholarly interaction, mathematics, shadows

Résumé

A simple mathematical scheme to represent the variation in the length of the shadow cast by a vertical gnomon at different times of day and in different months of the year is presented in the early astronomical compendium MUL.APIN. A small number of texts composed in the Late Babylonian period investigate and expand this scheme. These texts have previously been studied and understood as part of Babylonian astronomy. In this article, I suggest that two of these later texts can be better understood as mathematical texts. As such they provide evidence for the influence of astronomy on Late Babylonian mathematics, either or both as the context for simple mathematical problems and/or as a topic of mathematical investigation.

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