If you're interested in ancient math, take a look at Eleanor Robson's accessible paper on the Plimpton 322 tablet: https://scispace.com/pdf/words-and-pictures-

If you're interested in ancient math, take a look at Eleanor Robson's accessible paper on the Plimpton 322 tablet: https://scispace.com/pdf/words-and-pictures-new-light-on-plimpton-322-3wekczq7oy.pdf https://scispace.com/pdf/words-and-pictures-new-light-on-pli... Robson's argument is that it isn't a trig table in the modern sense and was probably constructed as a teacher's aide for completing-the-square problems that show up in Babylonian mathematics. Other examples of teaching-related tablets are known to exist. On a quick scan, it looks like the Wildberger paper cites Robson's and accepts the relation to the completing-the-square problem, but argues that the tablet's numbers are too complex to have been practical for teaching.