Chapter ID: CBB460924593

As the Outsider Walked in the Historiography of Mesopotamian Mathematics Until Neugebauer (2016)

unapi

Those who nowadays work on the history of advanced-level Babylonian mathematics do so as if everything had begun with the publication of Neugebauer’s Mathematische Keilschrift-Texte from 1935 to 1937 and Thureau-Dangin’s Textes mathématiques babyloniens from 1938, or at most with the articles published by Neugebauer and Thureau-Dangin during the few preceding years. Of course they/we know better, but often that is only in principle. The present paper is a sketch of how knowledge of Babylonian mathematics developed from the beginnings of Assyriology until the 1930s, and raises the question why an outsider was able to create a breakthrough where Assyriologists, in spite of their best will, had been blocked. One may see it as the anatomy of a particular “Kuhnian revolution”.

...More
Included in

Book Alexander Jones; Christine Proust; John M. Steele (2016) A Mathematician's Journeys: Otto Neugebauer and Modern Transformations of Ancient Science. unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB460924593/

Similar Citations

Chapter Jim Ritter; (2016)
Otto Neugebauer and Ancient Egypt (/isis/citation/CBB223483943/)

Chapter Duncan J. Melville; (2016)
After Neugebauer: Recent Developments in Mesopotamian Mathematics (/isis/citation/CBB913237179/)

Book Swerdlow, N. M.; (2000)
Ancient Astronomy and Celestial Divination (/isis/citation/CBB000110580/)

Chapter David E. Rowe; (2016)
From Graz to Göttingen: Neugebauer’s Early Intellectual Journey (/isis/citation/CBB721409711/)

Book Alexander Jones; Christine Proust; John M. Steele; (2016)
A Mathematician's Journeys: Otto Neugebauer and Modern Transformations of Ancient Science (/isis/citation/CBB341877683/)

Chapter Mathieu Ossendrijver; (2016)
Translating Babylonian Mathematical Astronomy: Neugebauer and Beyond (/isis/citation/CBB245236710/)

Article Mathieu Ossendrijver; (2018)
Bisecting the Trapezoid: Tracing the Origins of a Babylonian Computation of Jupiter’s Motion (/isis/citation/CBB820929403/)

Chapter John M. Steele; (2016)
Neugebauer’s Astronomical Cuneiform Texts and Its Reception (/isis/citation/CBB264607707/)

Chapter M. Willis Monroe; (2016)
The Micro-Zodiac in Babylon and Uruk: Seleucid Zodiacal Astrology (/isis/citation/CBB318135605/)

Book Scurlock, Jo Ann; Andersen, Burton R.; (2005)
Diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine: Ancient Sources, Translations, and Modern Medical Analyses (/isis/citation/CBB000650394/)

Essay Review Steele, John M.; (2000)
Babylonian Lunar Theory Reconsidered (/isis/citation/CBB000110326/)

Chapter Teije de Jong; (2016)
Babylonian Astronomy 1880–1950: The Players and the Field (/isis/citation/CBB194532905/)

Chapter John M. Steele; (2016)
The Circulation of Astronomical Knowledge between Babylon and Uruk (/isis/citation/CBB739825106/)

Article Zou, Da-hai; (2002)
A Preliminary Research on Li Yan's Study of the History of Mathematics in China (/isis/citation/CBB000340077/)

Article Enebakk, Vidar; (2009)
Lilley Revisited: Or Science and Society in the Twentieth Century (/isis/citation/CBB000952783/)

Article Rashed, Roshdi; Pyenson, Lewis; (2012)
Études et travaux -- Otto Neugebauer (1899--1990) (/isis/citation/CBB001251999/)

Authors & Contributors
Steele, John M.
Proust, Christine
Ossendrijver, Mathieu
M. Willis Monroe
Wee, John Zhu-En
Zou, Dahai
Concepts
Mathematics
Astronomy
Historians of science, modern
Cuneiform inscriptions
Historiography
Astrology
Time Periods
20th century, early
Ancient
20th century
20th century, late
19th century
Places
Ancient Near and Middle East: Egypt, Sumer, Babylon, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Persia
Babylon (extinct city)
Assyria
Mesopotamia
Middle and Near East
Uruk (extinct city)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment