An Australian mathematical claims to have discovered the roots of the applied geometry on a Babylonian clay tablet about 3,700 years old. The plaque, which dates between 1900 and 1600 BC, was discovered in central Iraq in 1894 and all these years was in the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul., without realizing its importance for the history of mathematics.
The plate, called Si.427, was created by a Babylonian “topographer” and was studied by Dr. Daniel Mansfield of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, who also published it in the journal Foundations of Science. According to him, “This is the only known example of a cadastral “document” from the ancient Babylonian period of 1900-1600 BC. and concerns a plan used by “surveyors” to determine land boundaries. In this case, it contains legal and geometric details about an estate that was divided after the sale of a part of it.».
It is considered important that the “surveyor” uses the so-called “Pythagorean trinities” to create accurate right angles. “The discovery and analysis of the plate have important implications for the history of mathematics. “For example, the plaque was created more than a thousand years before Pythagoras was born,” Mansfield said.
In 2017, the same Australian mathematician had speculated that another plate of the same period, known as “Plimpton 322”, is a unique example of a trigonometric table. As he stated, “it is generally accepted that trigonometry – the branch of mathematics that deals with the study of triangles – was developed by the ancient Greeks who studied the night sky during the 2nd century BC. “But the Babylonians had developed their own alternative ‘proto-trigonometry’ to solve problems with measurements on the ground and not in the sky.”
The Si.427 plate is thought to have existed before and after the “Plympton 322”. As early as 2017, Mansfield had assumed that such slabs were used for practical purposes, such as the construction of palaces, temples and canals or the setting of estate boundaries.
“With the new plate we can, indeed, see for the first time why (the Babylonians) were interested in geometry: They wanted to draw precise boundaries on the ground. It was a time when the earth was beginning to become private and people began to think in terms of “my land and your land”. Thus, they wanted to set clear boundaries in order to have good relations with their neighbors. “This is exactly what this plate is about: A field was separated and new boundaries were drawn,” Mansfield said.
Other plaques, already found from that time in Babylon, do reveal that there were disagreements about the boundaries of the estates and who was e.g. the owner of valuable trees such as palm trees, which were located near the border of neighboring estates. In such cases, surveyors-surveyors were called upon to settle the dispute and applied geometry was a very useful tool.
Finally, the Si.427 plate also contains a mystery: On the back it obviously has the numbers 25:29, without anyone having any idea what it is about. “It’s the ultimate enigma,” Mansfield said.
The photo was provided by the Athenian Agency
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