Mathematical lists: from archiving to innovation

Christine Proust (1)

1 SPHERE (UMR_7219) - Sciences, Philosophie, Histoire

Among Old Babylonian mathematical cuneiform texts, the “catalogues” and “series texts”, which contain lists of problem statements with no indication for their solution, constitute an interesting but little known corpus. Although catalogues and series texts do share strong stylistic similarities, the types of tablets used, the composition of the colophons, the structure of the lists, and the mechanisms which generate the statements differ. The differences between catalogues and series texts seem to reveal different intellectual projects, and probably reflect the fact that different communities of scribes produced them. These possible divergent traditions may relate to the hypothesized emergence of new mathematical practices at the end of the Old Babylonian period.

Mots clés: List; Cuneiform mathematics; Assyriology

Domaines: Histoire et perspectives sur les mathématiques [math.HO]; Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences; Linguistique; Etudes classiques

Christine Proust. Mathematical lists: from archiving to innovation. Tradition and Innovation in the Ancient Near East. Proceedings of the 57th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, 2014. ⟨hal-01139629⟩