A New Look at the Sargonic Mathematical Corpus

Abstract

We present a previously unpublished mathematical tablet from the Sargonic period which includes the earliest known example of a (partial) worked solution to a mathematical problem. The calculation errors and explicit methodological statements in the procedure provide convincing evidence for sexagesimalisation as early as the Sargonic period, in support of Powell (1976) and Whiting (1984). After re-evaluation of hitherto overlooked examples we find that the total number of known Sargonic mathematical problem tablets now stands at around a dozen. Many of them are very badly executed, with a range of errors in writing, arithmetic, and mathematical procedure. There are now four known Sargonic problem types, with the new exemplars showing some more “applied” attributes than the previously known texts. It is hoped that these results will stimulate the search for further mathematical problems which might be lying undetected in the Sargonic administrative corpus.

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