A Brief Look at the Number Systems and Mathematics of Mesopatamia

So if Assyria had its own number system, it was not important enough for anyone to write about.  As it stands, most the information about Mesopotamian number systems is about Babylonian's system, with only  a little knowledge about its predecessor, Akkadian, and Akkadian's predecessor, Sumerian.

A Sumerian List of Amounts of Grain

Lehi in the Desert

As a child, I learned the Book of Mormon story of the prophet Lehi, who followed a dream to take his family into the deserts surrounding ancient Jerusalem. Now, as a university student, I am finding new depth to the story by reading Hugh Nibley’s book Lehi in the Desert. In this scholarly approach to a religious topic, Nibley explores the so-called “Egypticity” of the story of Lehi by investigating its historical and geographical background. By noting innumerable small coincidences, Nibley points out that The Book of Mormon, first published in 1829, is consistent with our cultural knowledge of Egypt.

Movin' Around

Going to San Diego with digital navigators is how
it's done today.

Hey everyone and greetings from San Diego! I'm writing on a bit of 'travel-lag' after 13 hours in a BYU van and little sleep, but the Sun is shining! As I was thinking about this post I wanted to incorporate the usefulness of travel and written knowledge. Today we use "written" (a bit more digital version now) knowledge to get from Provo on I-15 to Las Vegas to San Diego in half a day. The co-pilot (guy in the passenger seat) as soon as he settled in got out his inverter, his laptop, his Garmin GPS and his GPS on his smart phone. It was a mobile command hub in about 45 seconds! We had maps, routes, audio feeds into the speakers on the van so that the little phone gps could have "Ashley" (so the female talking voice is named) tell us the next exit coming up and when we merge where.

Pomponius Mela's Map from AD 43. Notice the
Three Major Continents known at the time arranged
in a circle

So what's the point with all this technology? It facilitates our transportation in a way unprecedented only fifteen years ago. Now let's go back in time to what was around fifteen hundred years ago and earlier. I'm going to use the argument that what stands the test of time is the most valuable to people and the advancement of knowledge. We have more advanced GPS devices and smart phones to tell us more detailed information about maps, navigation and directional knowledge. Cartography, or the making of maps have existed since knowledge was first written. Cave paintings of star charts, landscape drawings to point out land markers, or clay tablets with simple pictures identifying land markers all give evidence to the utilitarian value and significance of maps for early peoples. Maps were based in the past with emphasis on land markers and what oral tradition and experience would pass on.

Where a Roman Merchant Might Travel during the 2nd Century AD

Let's take an example, you are a merchant from a small island outside Naples during the height of the Roman Empire. The fact that you are a roman citizen helps you move around easily within the empire so business goes well. Which new route do you wish to try to pick up if it means doubling your money? How do you get there? Traveling can mean traversing fifty miles up the road or thousands of miles across seas. How valuable is someone who can get you there or a map with good directions? What if one of those directions is completely wrong? Jumping back quickly to the present, last night I took the van to a nearby pharmacy to get one of the guys some medicine, but due to a GPS error I took a wrong turn, just in time before the battery went dead. I was practically flying blind on the foggy I-5 interstate trying to get back to the hotel. I knew how important that knowledge was right then! Needless to say I spent an hour learning the nearby roadways and now I'm the most knowledgeable one of the placee. Today's transportation and technology make simple mistakes like this not so costly, but as a Roman merchant I may have wandered into dangerous territory or hazardous terrain. Mistakes were less merciful back then in my opinion. Like Sam's great article on the Polynesian sea-farers, anyone who wishes to move around must have the means of doing so.

Now, was there tourism like there is today? According to Tony Perrottet in a National Geographic article, Augustus was a sort of its founder in the Roman Empire when he created highways and rid the Mediterranean of pirates. The favorite places were the ancient ruins of Troy in Turkey, a place immortalized by Homer's Odessey and Iliad. There was a sense among the more elite class that you weren't cultured until you had been to see where Helen was battled over, seen the great pyramids and the tombs and had these adventurous journeys. It's interesting how writing helped to create a legacy for these areas. In addition to maps, stories were a written knowledge fueling transportation by creating interest in the minds of young and old to go see what they were missing.

Written knowledge incites and motivates us to reach out to the world. It provides us with the means to arrive there by way of maps outlining what we should look for, how long to pack, what to stay clear of and what to expect when we arrive. We have built upon the knowledge of the ancients to advance the industry of transportation and tourism in a way that helps us all see the world and experience life outside of our childhood neighborhoods.

Q & A with Dr. Toronto: A discussion on Written Knowledge

This past week I was able to interview Dr. James A. Toronto about the significance of written knowledge in the Middle East. Dr. Toronto has a Ph.D from Harvard in Islamic Studies and currently teaches at BYU.