Sumeria

The oldest known clay tablet containing mathematical computations (Schøyen MS 3047) is today held in the Schøyen Collection. It is a multiplication table from 27th century BCE Sumer (now Iraq) giving area as a product of recorded lengths. Note the token impressions, which you can read more about in another Convergence article, "Mathematical Treasure: Mesopotamian Accounting Tokens." The tablet measures less than 3 inches in height and width and is less than an inch thick.

Sumerian math was a sexagesimal system, meaning it was based on the number 60. The system “is striking for its originality and simplicity,” the mathematician Duncan J. Melville of St. Lawrence University, in Canton, N.Y., said at a symposium observing the opening of the exhibition.Nov 22, 2010

The 360 degree circle, the foot and its 12 inches, and the "dozen" as a unit, are but a few examples of the vestiges of Sumerian Mathematics, still evident in our daily lives. Their achievements in Astronomy, the establishment of a calendar, and similar mathematical feats will come up later.

By 2000 B.C. the base-60 system had largely disappeared from common use, but it survives in our measures of months, days, hours, minutes and seconds, so called because they are the second division of 60 from the hour. Another vestige of Babylonian mathematics endures in the 360-degree circle.Jul 8, 2013