ABSTRACT

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there. (L. P. Hartley)

Do not worry about your problems with mathematics: I assure you mine are far greater.

(A. Einstein)

General histories of the Ancient Near East often stress the huge treasure-trove oftablets that survive from Mesopotamia and the economic focus of many cuneiform archives. It is true that the vast majority of tablets that have been recovered to date from the third millennium BC are administrative in nature (Figure 15.1). Accounting and administration being what they are, counting, measuring, and dating are central. The scribes wrote to record how many workers at what rate of pay, how much of the canal had been dredged, how many units of barley were harvested, what interest rate a loan bore, and so on. To convey this information clearly, the Sumerians used unique systems of counting and calendrics. While they may seem cumbersome to us, studying them can reveal a world wherein everything had its proper place. This chapter aims to provide an overview of counting – that is, numbers, metrology, mathematics and its evolution, and numeracy and scribal education in the third millennium. We will then turn to calendars, that is, year names and month names, as well as calendrical oddities and reforms.