A YouTube playlist of video lectures by the researchers behind the analysis of Plimpton 322, a Old Babylonian clay tablet, covering its mathematical content and historical context, including the claim that it may be an early trigonometric table.

Commenters point to the series as a companion to the paper, giving more context on the authors' work on the tablet than press coverage does.

What commenters said (1)

1. Recommendsjacobolus2017in “An ancient Babylonian tablet may contain the first evidence of trigonometry”

   I recommend looking directly at the (apparently open access) paper, which is in my opinion much more interesting than the various press-release style news articles: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0315086017...

   Also see the authors’ (ongoing) series of Youtube video lectures about their work and its context: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIljB45xT85Aqe2b4FBWU...

   Here’s what page 2 of the paper says about the paper’s contents:

   We present an improved approach to the generation and reconstruction of the table which concurs with Britton, Proust and Shnider (2011) on the likely missing columns. [...] We show that in principle the information on P322 is sufficient to perform the same function as a modern trigonometric table using only OB techniques, and we apply it to contemporary OB questions regarding the measurements of a rectangle.

   We then exhibit the impressive mathematical power of P322 by showing that it holds its own as a computational device even against Madhava’s sine table from 3000 years later. This is a strong argument that the essential purpose of P322 was indeed trigonometric: suggesting that an OB scribe unwittingly created an effective trigonometric table 3000 years ahead of its time is an untenable position.

   [...] Further research is required to investigate the historical and mathematical possibilities we are suggesting. On the historical side the question arises of how the Babylonians might have used such a table, and we do not attempt to answer this question here. On the mathematical side it is becoming increasingly clear that the OB tradition of step-by-step procedures based on their concrete and powerful arithmetical system is much richer than we formerly imagined. Perhaps the understanding of this ancient culture can help inspire new directions in modern mathematics and education.

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