A 5-Times Table
Below is an example of an Old Babylonian cuneiform tablet showing a standard
multiplication table with principal number 5. The tablet is NBC 7344, from
the Yale Babylonian Collection. This tablet is an example of the
most common type, beginning with the line '5 a-ra 1 5'
and then continuing 'a-ra 2 10', 'a-ra 3
15' and so on through the table. The multiplication table
takes up both sides of the tablet. See the page on Old
Babylonian multiplication tables for more details.
This tablet was originally published by Neugebauer and Sachs in Mathematical
Cuneiform Texts.
I thank Professor W.W. Hallo for permission to use the images of the
tablets.
Go to Mesopotamian
Mathematics.
Last modified: 6 June 2001
Duncan J. Melville
dmelville@stlawu.edu