Of the approximately half million clay tablets excavated at the beginning of the 19th century, about 400 are of a mathematical nature. Probably the most famous is called Plimpton 322, referring to the fact that it is tablet number 322 in the G.A. Plimpton collection at Columbia University. The tablet had a table of four columns and 15 rows of numbers in the cuneiform script of the period. It is believed to have been written about 1800 BC in Babylonia. The table appears to be a listing of Pythagorean triples, whole numbers that are a solution to the Pythagorean theorem, a2 + b2 = c2, such as (3,4,5). Columbia University is a private university in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. ... The Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. ... Babylonia, named for the city of Babylon, was an ancient state in Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq), combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad. ... The Pythagorean theorem: a2 + b2 = c2 A Pythagorean triple consists of three positive integers a, b, and c, such that a2 + b2 = c2. ... The Pythagorean theorem: The sum of the areas of the two squares on the legs (blue and red) equals the area of the square on the hypotenuse (purple). ...
In proposing the use of reciprocals for generating Plimpton322 she went contrary to Neugebauer, and she went contrary to the underlying mathematics.
The extant first column of Plimpton322 suggested to Robson that the OB scribes used the "squaring" of the Diagonal numbers to somehow obtain their results.
I would suggest that Plimpton322 originated in an intellectual milieu and culture that was conversant with Pythagoreans at a higher sophisticated level.
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