"

7 MS 3047: Conclusion

In Chapter 6, we experienced first hand how a Sumerian scribe would have used simple repeated addition to figure out products of lengths. Figure 8 shows MS 3047 with all of these products filled in correctly, as they were on the original tablet.[1]

A simplified rendering of an edited version of the tablet MS 3047. It is divided into three columns and seven rows. The tablet has been edited so that the area number in the last row has been removed.
Figure 8. MS 3047 with all of its System A numbers restored except for the last row.

The only piece of MS 3047 that we have yet to discuss is the bottom row.[2] Jöran Friberg remarks on this in his book.

“When this clay tablet first entered the Schøyen collection, about half its surface was covered with salt incrustations,[3] covering the text. When the tablet had been cleaned, the appearance of a total in the last entry on the obverse came as a complete surprise.”[4] 

Friberg is referring to the word in the cell in the bottom of the left-hand column, an-šè-gú, which he translates to “total.” The cell in the bottom of the center column is the total of all of the areas listed on the preceding rows.[5]

Activity 6. Refer to Figure 8 to answer the following question.

Add together the areas listed in the first 6 rows of the righthand column on MS 3047. Write your answer using the fewest number of symbols from System A (Table 3) possible. You may need to trade a group of symbols for one symbol of a larger value.

 

 

Media Attributions

  1. If you look closely at rows 4 and 5 in a photograph of MS 3047, you can see the scribe made two simple errors that have been erased. Friberg's drawing reflects this also. The image can be viewed online at “MSCT 1, 160, MS 3047 Artifact Entry.” 2004. Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI). December 15, 2004. https://cdli.earth/P252059. ↵
  2. This tablet also has some seemingly unrelated material on the other side. For more details see Jöran Friberg, A Remarkable Collection of Babylonian Mathematical Texts Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection: Cuneiform Texts 1 (2007, Springer), 152-153. ↵
  3. You can view a picture of the salt covering MS 3047 here: https://cdli.earth/artifacts/252059/reader/138011. ↵
  4. Friberg (2007), 150-151. ↵
  5. The cell in the bottom of the righthand column is likely the scribes signature according to Friberg (2007), 151. ↵

License

Math History Copyright © by Bradley Burdick. All Rights Reserved.

Share This Book