Cuneiform - Milwaukee Montessori School · Cuneiform Mesopotamian Writing and Math. The Sumerians developed the first form of writing pictographs. Over time, the pictographs turned

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