Dan+M+Week+2

“Counting in Babylon”

I found this article one of the more intriguing, and decided to write about it because it would seem less people do. Located in present day Iraq, Sumer and Babylonia “were probably the first peoples to have a written language”. Although this language was lost until recently, it is an incredible accomplishment to those civilizations. An even greater accomplishment of this civilization is the standardization of weights and measures.

According to the article, “in about 2500BC, by Royal Edict, weights and measures were standardized in Babylon”. It was based on one of the most practical measures around, barleycorn. They standardized the weights and measures in accordance with this early currency. The smallest measure of weight was the grain (approximately 45milligrams), and the smallest unit of length was the barleycorn (approximately 1/10 of an inch). The Babylonians expanded their weights and measures to include a variety of uses using these small basic lengths. The Babylonians also developed a 12 month 360 day calendar. Using this they also created a sundial with 360 degrees (sound familiar?).

The Babylonian number system was based on 60s unlike ours, which is based on 10s. This system based on 10s was actually incredibly convenient when dealing with fractions, and large numbers. One of the examples the author uses is if a family decides to buy a year’s worth of grain. To a Babylonian it may be “12 //talents//” but today we would need to calculate grains per day into tons per year. Very tedious. Clay tablets have even been found containing triplets which correspond to Pythagoras’ “sums of squares” formula.

Looking at how the Babylonians were possibly the first civilization to create a written language, and a standard measurement system, one cannot help but wonder whether our new system is inferior to their system created thousands of years ago? Or is it possibly that ours is better fit for our current society? I tend to lead toward the latter. Even though they achieved amazing things, and created systems that would be used in a different variation more that 4,000 years later, I find it difficult to imagine dealing with numbers in a base of 60.