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5.3: BM15285 #24

  • Page ID
    47621
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    1 1 uš the confrontation.

    2 Inside, 16 confrontations

    3 I have laid down. Their surface what?

    The small problem that precedes is extracted from a tablet containing some 40 problems on subdivisions of a square with side 1 uš = \(1`\) \(\mathrm{NINDAN}\)—the surviving fragments of the tablet contain 31 problems. All are accompanied by diagrams showing the actual subdivision (often necessary for understanding the sometimes very concise enunciations). Figure 5.6 shows the obverse of the principal fragment (problem #24 is found on its reverse).

    The above text does not explain the procedure—none of the problems on the tablet do so. It is obvious, however, that there is no need for algebraic thinking here. It is no less evident that the technique used to calculate the coefficients in the problem BM 13901 #10 (page 46) will also serve here.

    In line 3 it is seen that the verb translated “to lay down” may mean “draw,” cf. note 3, page 46.

    bigImagesimage_Cuneiform600.jpg
    Figure \(5.6\): The obverse of the principal fragment of the tablet BM 15285. After C. J. Gadd, "Forms and Colours". Revue d’Assyriologie 19 (1922), 149–159, here p. 156.

    This page titled 5.3: BM15285 #24 is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Jens Høyrup via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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