WHAT

Before Pythagoras: The Culture of Old Babylonian Mathematics, the
highly lauded exhibition of thirteen clay tablets dating from the Old
Babylonian Period (ca. 1900-1700 BCE), closes to the public on
January 24. On view at New York University's
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
(ISAW), the exhibition reveals
the highly sophisticated mathematical practice
and education that flourished in Babylonia
(present-day Iraq) more than 1,000 years
before the time of the Greek sages Thales and
Pythagoras, with whom mathematics is traditionally said to have begun.

The tablets in Before Pythagoras, inscribed in cuneiform script, cover the full spectrum of mathematical activity, from arithmetical tables copied by scribes-in-training to sophisticated work on topics that today would be classified as number theory and algebra. An extended pamphlet guides viewers in reading the cuneiform numbers.

WHEN

Closes January 24, 2011

WHERE

Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
15 East 84 Street, New York City; Telephone:212-992-7800.

ADMISSION

Admission is free

HOURS

Tuesday-Sunday, 11 am-6 pm; Friday, 11 am-8 pm. Closed Monday.

ISAW

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University
was established in 2006 by the Leon Levy Foundation. In addition to its
doctoral and postdoctoral programs, ISAW engages the larger scholarly community and the public with an ongoing program of exhibitions, lectures, and publications.

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

Image: Old Babylonian "hand tablet" illustrating Pythagoras' Theorem and an approximation of the square root of two. Clay, 19th-17th century BCE. Yale Babylonian Collection YBC 7289. Photo: West Semitic Research.