4 ms·

I'm so astonished and impressed with this kind of work. When I look at that tablet all I see are a bunch of triangle impressions like scales. I wonder how it is

• ljak 11y ago
  From http://www.livescience.com/53518-babylonians-tracked-jupiter-with-fancy-math.html http://www.livescience.com/53518-babylonians-tracked-jupiter... > "It's not an actual trapezoid that describes the shape of a field, or some configuration of the planets in space," Ossendrijver told Live Science. "It's a configuration in a mathematical space. It's a highly abstract application." > "Actually, this particular tablet has ugly handwriting," Ossendrijver said. "It's slanted. It's like cursive if it were written very rapidly. It's very abbreviated. He left out everything that is not absolutely necessary to follow the computation." You can read the details here: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6272/482.full http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6272/482.full The supplementary materials give a full transcript of the tablet you linked (one of several): http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/suppl/2016/01/27/351.6272.482.DC1/Ossendrijver.SM.pdf http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/suppl/2016/01/27/3... > 1 The day when it appears: 0;12, until 1,0 days, 0;9,30. > 2 0;12 and 0;9,30 is 0;21,30, times 0;30 > 3 is 0;10,45, times 1,0 is 10;45. > 4 After completing 1,0 days, until 1,0 days 0;1,30. > 5 0;9,30 and 0;1,30 is 0;11, times 0;30 is 0;5,30. > 6 0;5,30 times 1,0 days is 5;30. (erasure) 10;45 and 5;30 is > 7 16;15, the total. From appearance until station the motion is 16;15. The actual trapezoid is mentioned in another tablet, which is also translated. To see how the numerals actually work, just look up Babylonian Mathematics. It's a pretty simple base-60 system.
  • anticore 11y ago
    Weird question, but how does one write very rapidly in stone?
    • deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    • acqq 11y ago
      Clay tablets texts were written in soft clay mass, just pressing the clay with the wooden stylus produces the marks. Only once it's baked it is durable.
    • deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
  • duncan_bayne 11y ago
    He left out everything that is not absolutely necessary to follow the computation Apparently mathematicians haven't changed much in millennia :)
• Doe22 11y ago
  The book "The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code" by Margalit Fox is about the deciphering of the Mycenaean Linear B script. One of the striking (to me) things described in the book was how they even figured out how many different characters there were in the script. That image instantly reminded of their description. Imagine looking at the handwriting of thousands of different people writing a script you don't understand. Some people are sloppy, some precise. Everyone has their own distinctive way of writing and you have to figure out exactly which differences in the characters are actually meaningful. Add in the fact that the writing samples you have span several centuries and changes in writing style and language occurred over that time. Deciphering a script like that is a staggeringly difficult task.
  • walterbell 11y ago
    There's a PBS documentary on deciphering the glyphs of the lost Mayan language. The modern Mayans now teach the lost language in schools, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ppfC6y-5s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ppfC6y-5s. Corresponding book: "Breaking the Maya Code", http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Maya-Code-Third-Michael/dp/0500289557/ http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Maya-Code-Third-Michael/dp/05...
• Jun8 11y ago
  The writing is cuneiform script (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuneiform_script https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuneiform_script), they were created by a wedge on wet clay. I guess our writing would appear as peculiar to ancient eyes :-) For a general and short introduction to cuneiform I would suggest http://www.amazon.com/Cuneiform-Reading-Past-C-Walker/dp/0520061152 http://www.amazon.com/Cuneiform-Reading-Past-C-Walker/dp/052... (other books in the Reading The Past series are excellent, too). Or, if you're interested in other type of ancient writing in general, there's a nice Mayan Hieroglyph workbook online (pdf: http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/hopkins/MayaGlyphWritingWrkBk.pdf http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/hopkins/MayaGlyphWritingWrk...). It's a great way to waste an afternoon!
  • theoh 11y ago
    I recently saw a talk by a member of a German team that created a Cuneiform font to go with Unicode's support for the writing system. His book is here: http://www.typografie.de/shop/index.php/en/digitale-keilschrift.html http://www.typografie.de/shop/index.php/en/digitale-keilschr... (It's pronounced cune-iform, apparently, rather than cune-ay-ee-form with a diphthong)
    • nitrogen 11y ago
      Interesting. Wikipedia lists two pronunciations, neither of which I had been using (I was using a latin-like "ay" for the e instead of a long "ee"): /kjuːˈniːᵻfɔːrm/ kew-NEE-i-form or /ˈkjuːnᵻfɔːrm/ KEW-ni-form
  • jhallenworld 11y ago
    >It's a great way to waste an afternoon! Even a little web browsing wasted a lot of time. It lead me to read about word dividers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_divider https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_divider IMAGINEIFWEDIDNOTUSESPACESATALL! OR·WRITING·WITH·INTERPUNCTS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpunct https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpunct Also Zlango was going to be the new writing system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lango_%28app%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lango_%28app%29 I seems smartphones have killed it.
• chestnut-tree 11y ago
  The Open University has a beginner's introduction to Babylonian Mathematics http://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1976&printable=1 http://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=... Edit: Here's an audio interview with Mathieu Ossendrijver on this research. The interview starts at the 20:30 mark http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03g0d7b http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03g0d7b