WHAT

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) announces a
six-week extension of Before Pythagoras: The Culture of Old Babylonian Mathematics. The highly lauded
exhibition includes thirteen clay tablets from the Old Babylonian Period (ca. 1900–1700 BCE), demonstrating that—in addition to the development of writing, the foundations for the Western legal system, and other crucial accomplishments—ancient Mesopotamian culture attained a stunningly high level of mathematical achievement more than 1,000 years before the Greek sages with whom the field is said to have begun.

The fact that the tablets, at once enlightening and beautiful, are the actual manuscripts of the scribes, rather than copies selected and edited by later generations, endows Before Pythagoras with a sense of immedi acy, as if visitors were looking over the shoulders of the scribes as they work. An extended pamphlet guides viewers in reading the cuneiform numbers.

WHEN

On View through January 24, 2011
Tuesday–Sunday, 11 am–6 pm

WHERE

Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
15 East 84 Street, New York City

ADMISSION

Admission is free

For additional information, contact Jeanne Collins & Associates, LLC, New York City, 646-486-7050, or info@jcollinsassociates.com.