The sexagesimal place-value system inside and outside texts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35305/cl.vi20.81Parole chiave:
sexagesimal place-value notation, Mesopotamia, balance account, marginal number, calculation deviceAbstract
This article proposes a contribution to the reflection on the invention of the sexagesimal place-value notation, a way of representing numbers which was at the basis of the so-called “Babylonian” mathematics (mathematical texts written in cuneiform script in the Ancient Near East from the 3rd to the 1st millennium BCE). The history of the sexagesimal place-value notation has already been the subject of numerous studies. It is proposed here to shed some new light on this question not only by examining texts, but also by taking into account the environment of the texts: what happens outside the text itself? What are the activities that accompany the act of writing?
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