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| ▲ | yorwba a day ago | parent | next [-] |
| The Weld-Blundell Prism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weld-Blundell_Prism doesn't use positional notation, so 5.50.0 is expressed as 𒐧𒐢 (five 3600, five 600) and 5.10.0 is expressed as 𒐧𒐞 (five 3600, one 600). (Lines 27-35, each number appearing twice separated by a line with 𒁹𒈗 (one king), if you want to follow along.) |
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| ▲ | shiandow a day ago | parent [-] | | This is besides the point, but you do have to marvel at the technology it took to make this comment render just fine in HN. |
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| ▲ | mapontosevenths a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Yeah. I had Fable run through every version of it I could think of and it explained the numbering system was the root of everything being divisible by 60. I did find a pattern though. If you look at ALL the kings, rather than just those 8 it becomes obvious. The recent numbers are realistic and drift further apart, becoming less and less accurate, the further back you go. Interestingly it also compared some other clay tablets and they were close. So it seems that they were probably written down based on a verbal history that had already drifted wildly well before it was written down . |
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| ▲ | axpy906 a day ago | parent [-] | | Thinking that it was just a one off claim in a single text was my initial suspicion here, as someone who knows nothing about the subject.
If it’s repeated across other “texts” (didn’t they use clay tablets?) then so much for that. | | |
| ▲ | mapontosevenths 21 hours ago | parent [-] | | Yep. I only learned about it last night, but there are many of these king tablets. They mostly agree with each other within a margin, which is interesting. So the scribes were getting it right, but whatever came before clay tablets (oral history probably) had already goofed it up. Also, one of those early kings was also literally a well known god. So it's possible they were just saying "Before the flood Gods ruled on earth", and we've since forgotten most of those gods. |
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| ▲ | card_zero a day ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Positional notation with no zero is awkward. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal#Babylonian_mathema... "For example, the symbols for 1 and 60 are identical." |
