Geometry Was Known Long Before Greek Mathematicians

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 3, 27 February 1950, Page 5

Geometry Was Known Long Before Greek Mathematicians

Remember those intricate goemetry problems you used to ponder over at school? You probably did not think that goemetry was vei'y old but recent discoveries have shown that it was well known by ancients long before the Greeks started dabbling in it. Clay tablets recently unearthed in Iraq by an archaeological expedition, working in co-operation with the Iraq Government, may cause historians to revise long-held beliefs about the early development of science and the human mind. The tablets show that intricate geometric problems, whose original solution had been attributed to the Greek mathematician Euclid, were understood 1,700 years before his birth. j The material was found in the ancient town of Shaddipur, near the present city of Baghdad, Iraq.

The tablets are only a few of the 2,400 cuneiform-inscribed clay “books” and fragments uncovered in the last few years by archaeologists. They are said to be in almost perfect condition. Earlier archaeological findings have shown that the Babylonians knew how to measure the sizes of rectangular figures and had made a start on the goemetry of the circle. The newly uncovered writings, however, are tinged/With algebraic concepts that appeared even later than Euclid in the development of modern mathematical science.