Cuneiform

Mesopotamian Writing and Math

The Sumerians developed the first form of writing

pictographs

Over time, the

pictographs turned

into wedge shapes.

Cuneiform means

“wedged-shaped”

Clay tablets and stylus

Clay tablets where formed by hand and left in the sun to dry.

A stylus was used by a scribe to write on a clay tablet. They were made of wood and sharpened into a point at one end and a wedge at the other.

Numbers

- numbers were made before the alphabet

- Recorded things like - Taxes- Land sales- Loans- Trade agreements- Inheritances

Math

- Based on 60 (sexagesimal number system)

- The symbol (a wedge turned sideways) meant 10

- The symbol (a vertical wedge) meant 1

- 1 and 60 are the same symbol

- 60 is divisible by these 12 number: - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, 60

Math

- System of counting to 60 using knuckles

- 5 hands x 12 knuckles = 60

Mathematicians

- First to divide time into - Day = 24 hours- Hour = 60 minutes- Minute = 60 seconds

- Frist to divide a circle into 360 degrees

- Prime factorization of 60- 2x2x3x5

200 BCE Mesopotamian Sundial