INTERPRETATION OF REVERSE ALGORITHMS IN SEVERAL MESOPOTAMIAN TEXTS

Abstract

This paper examines some Mesopotamian texts which refer to the factorization algorithms used by scribes for reciprocal and square root calculations during the Old Babylonian period (beginning of the second millennium BC). These texts contain series of calculations expressed by mean of numbers written in place value notation and displayed in a specific way on the surface of clay tablets. Analysis of various aspects of the tablets such as layout and structure of the texts, numerical data, parallels and contexts, shows that the series of calculation they contain are not always solely exercises for scribal training as previously claimed. Rather, the purpose of some of them, especially the tablet CBS 1215 which contains series of reciprocal calculations, seems to have been communication between erudite scribes about some fundamental arithmetical rules. This paper also shows that the goal of these texts is to explain why and how the algorithm operates.

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