Thursday, August 18, 2011

Ancient Cuneiform Math Tablet Precedes in Designer Prior Art the Design Claims of Apple for the iPad2 by ca. 4000 Years: Columbia University's Plimpton 322

In the previous Ancient World posting -- "Wafer Thin" Writing Tablets of Vindolanda and an Erroneous Modern Claim by Apple to Origination of Thin Tablet Design for the iPad2 -- we showed that wafer-thin writing tablet design preceded the Apple iPad2 by at least 2000 years.

What happens if we go back another ca. 2000 years? Can we find writing tablets of the approximate same aspect ratio as the Apple iPad2 or the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1? We can. We can.

There is not that much new in the outer design of tablets in this field.

Let us take the Babylonian writing tablet designated as Plimtpon 322, which is dated to ca. 1800 BC. It is the most renowned mathematical tablet in the world of cuneiform script. People in the computer industry, which has a lot to do with math, should be well aware of it. They known their math. Nicht wahr?

Do we have a match? We do. We do. Plimpton 322 is 13  x 9 cm  or ca. 5 x 3.5 inches, or about half the size of the iPad2. Not only that, but it presents four columns of cuneiform "numbers" (like icons) in 15 rows. The Apple iPad2 also has four columns of "icons". There are only limited possibilities of presenting symbols for legible reading on a tablet. In this regard, Apple claims as its own a tablet design feature already found 4000 years ago.

Below is a photograph of Plimpton 322:






Plimpton 322 is in the G.A. Plimpton Collection at Columbia University. The image at Wikipedia was copied from http://www.math.ubc.ca/~cass/courses/m446-03/pl322/pl322.html. An academic presentation of Plimpton 322 with image is found at page 12 of Rida T. Farouki, Pythagorean-hodograph curves: algebra and geometry inseparable.


As written at the Wikipedia about Plimpton 322:
"Plimpton 322 is a Babylonian clay tablet, notable as containing an example of Babylonian mathematics. It has number 322 in the G.A. Plimpton Collection at Columbia University.[1] This tablet, believed to have been written about 1800 BC, has a table of four columns and 15 rows of numbers in the cuneiform script of the period....
Plimpton 322 is partly broken [LawPundit comment: partly broken at the top left], approximately 13 cm wide, 9 cm tall, and 2 cm thick. New York publisher George A. Plimpton purchased the tablet from an archaeological dealer, Edgar J. Banks, in about 1922, and bequeathed it with the rest of his collection to Columbia University in the mid 1930s. According to Banks, the tablet came from Senkereh, a site in southern Iraq corresponding to the ancient city of Larsa.[3]
The tablet is believed to have been written about 1800 BCE, based in part on the style of handwriting used for its cuneiform script: Robson (2002) writes that this handwriting "is typical of documents from southern Iraq of 4000–3500 years ago." More specifically, based on formatting similarities with other tablets from Larsa that have explicit dates written on them, Plimpton 322 can be dated to the period 1822–1784 BCE.[4] Robson points out that Plimpton 322 was written in the same format as other administrative, rather than mathematical, documents of the period.[5]"
Alas, dear Apple, you are at least 4000 years too late in your design claim for the iPad2 when looking at the historical prior art of flat writing tablets with the same approximate aspect ratio of length and width.

Most Popular Posts of All Time

Sky Earth Native America


Sky Earth Native America 1:
American Indian Rock Art Petroglyphs Pictographs
Cave Paintings Earthworks & Mounds as Land Survey & Astronomy
,
Volume 1, Edition 2, 266 pages, by Andis Kaulins.

  • Sky Earth Native America 2:
    American Indian Rock Art Petroglyphs Pictographs
    Cave Paintings Earthworks & Mounds as Land Survey & Astronomy
    ,
    Volume 2, Edition 2, 262 pages, by Andis Kaulins.

  • Both volumes have the same cover except for the labels "Volume 1" viz. "Volume 2".
    The image on the cover was created using public domain space photos of Earth from NASA.

    -----

    Both book volumes contain the following basic book description:
    "Alice Cunningham Fletcher observed in her 1902 publication in the American Anthropologist
    that there is ample evidence that some ancient cultures in Native America, e.g. the Pawnee in Nebraska,
    geographically located their villages according to patterns seen in stars of the heavens.
    See Alice C. Fletcher, Star Cult Among the Pawnee--A Preliminary Report,
    American Anthropologist, 4, 730-736, 1902.
    Ralph N. Buckstaff wrote:
    "These Indians recognized the constellations as we do, also the important stars,
    drawing them according to their magnitude.
    The groups were placed with a great deal of thought and care and show long study.
    ... They were keen observers....
    The Pawnee Indians must have had a knowledge of astronomy comparable to that of the early white men."
    See Ralph N. Buckstaff, Stars and Constellations of a Pawnee Sky Map,
    American Anthropologist, Vol. 29, Nr. 2, April-June 1927, pp. 279-285, 1927.
    In our book, we take these observations one level further
    and show that megalithic sites and petroglyphic rock carving and pictographic rock art in Native America,
    together with mounds and earthworks, were made to represent territorial geographic landmarks
    placed according to the stars of the sky using the ready map of the starry sky
    in the hermetic tradition, "as above, so below".
    That mirror image of the heavens on terrestrial land is the "Sky Earth" of Native America,
    whose "rock stars" are the real stars of the heavens, "immortalized" by rock art petroglyphs, pictographs,
    cave paintings, earthworks and mounds of various kinds (stone, earth, shells) on our Earth.
    These landmarks were placed systematically in North America, Central America (Meso-America) and South America
    and can to a large degree be reconstructed as the Sky Earth of Native America."


    Our Blogs and Websites

    • 99 is not 100 • Aabecis • AK Photo Blog • Ancient Egypt Weblog • Ancient World Blog • AndisKaulins.com • Andis Kaulins Blog • Archaeology Travel Photos (Flickr) • Archaeology Websearch • Archaeo Pundit • Arts Pundit • Astrology and Birth • Baltic Coachman • Biotechnology Pundit • Book Pundit • Chronology of the Ancient World • Easter Island Script • Echolat • edu.edu • Einstein’s Voice • Etruscan Bronze Liver of Piacenza • EU Pundit • Gadget Pundit • Garden Pundit • Golf Pundit • Gourmet Pundit • Hand Proof • House Pundit • Human Migrations • Idea Pundit • Illyrian Language • Indus Valley Script • Infinity One : The Secret of the First Disk (the game) • Isandis (blogspot) • Journal Pundit • Kaulins Genealogy Blog • Kaulinsium • Latvian Blog • LawPundit.com • LawPundit (blog I) • Law Pundit (blog II) • LexiLine.com • Lexiline Journal • LexiLine (ProBoards) • Library Pundit • Lingwhizt • Literary Pundit • Magnifichess • Make it Music • Maps and Cartography • Megalithic World • Megaliths • Megaliths.net • Minoan Culture • Mutatis Mutandis • Nanotech Pundit • Nostratic Languages • Phaistos Disc • Pharaonic Hieroglyphs • Photo Blog of the World • Prehistoric Art Pundit • Private Wealth Blog • PunditMania • Quanticalian • Quick to Travel • Quill Pundit • Road Pundit • Sport Pundit • Star Pundit • • Stars Stones and Scholars (blog) • Stars Stones and Scholars (book) • Stonehenge Pundit • The Enchanted Glass • UbiquitousPundit • WatchPundit • Wine Pundit • Word Pundit •