Eleanor Robson
Encyclopedia
Eleanor Robson is a Reader in History and Philosophy of Science at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science
, Cambridge University, vice-chair of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq
and a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford
.
Robson is the author or co-author of several books on Mesopotamia
n culture and the history of mathematics
. In 2003, she won the Lester R. Ford Award of the Mathematical Association of America
for her work on Plimpton 322
, a clay tablet
of Babylonian mathematics
; contrary to previous theories according to which this tablet represented a table of Pythagorean triples, Robson showed that it could have been a collection of school exercises in solving quadratic equation
s. She has also been widely quoted for her criticism of the U.S. Government's failure to prevent looting at the National Museum of Iraq
during the Iraq War in 2003.
Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge
The Department of History and Philosophy of Science , of the University of Cambridge is the largest department of History and Philosophy of Science in the United Kingdom. It received a maximum rating of 4* for the majority of its submissions to the RAE 2008 Research Assessment Exercise...
, Cambridge University, vice-chair of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq
British School of Archaeology in Iraq
The British Institute for the Study of Iraq is the only body in Britain devoted to research into the ancient civilizations and languages of Mesopotamia....
and a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford
All Souls College, Oxford
The Warden and the College of the Souls of all Faithful People deceased in the University of Oxford or All Souls College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England....
.
Robson is the author or co-author of several books on Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
n culture and the history of mathematics
History of mathematics
The area of study known as the history of mathematics is primarily an investigation into the origin of discoveries in mathematics and, to a lesser extent, an investigation into the mathematical methods and notation of the past....
. In 2003, she won the Lester R. Ford Award of the Mathematical Association of America
Mathematical Association of America
The Mathematical Association of America is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists;...
for her work on Plimpton 322
Plimpton 322
Plimpton 322 is a Babylonian clay tablet, notable as containing an example of Babylonian mathematics. It has number 322 in the G.A. Plimpton Collection at Columbia University...
, a clay tablet
Clay tablet
In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age....
of Babylonian mathematics
Babylonian mathematics
Babylonian mathematics refers to any mathematics of the people of Mesopotamia, from the days of the early Sumerians to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. Babylonian mathematical texts are plentiful and well edited...
; contrary to previous theories according to which this tablet represented a table of Pythagorean triples, Robson showed that it could have been a collection of school exercises in solving quadratic equation
Quadratic equation
In mathematics, a quadratic equation is a univariate polynomial equation of the second degree. A general quadratic equation can be written in the formax^2+bx+c=0,\,...
s. She has also been widely quoted for her criticism of the U.S. Government's failure to prevent looting at the National Museum of Iraq
National Museum of Iraq
The National Museum of Iraq is a museum located in Baghdad, Iraq. It contains precious relics from Mesopotamian civilization.-Foundation:...
during the Iraq War in 2003.
Books
- Old Babylonian coefficient lists and the wider context of mathematics in ancient Mesopotamia, 2100-1600 BC (1995), Oxford University.
- Mesopotamian mathematics, 2100-1600 BC: technical constants in bureaucracy and education (1999), Oxford editions of cuneiform texts 14, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780198152460. The constants of the title, expressed by the Babylonian word igigubbûm, include mathematical constants such as a numerical approximation of πNumerical approximations of πThis page is about the history of approximations for the mathematical constant pi . There is a table summarizing the chronology of computation of π. See also the history of pi for other aspects of the evolution of our knowledge about mathematical properties of pi...
as well as conversion factorConversion factorA conversion factor changes something to a different version or form. A factor is something that brings results or a cause, while conversion is an action of changing the "version" of a thing....
s between different units. Reviewer Leo Depuydt writes that this book "surveys all that is known about constants in Mesopotamian mathematics and advances our insight into their function". - The history of mathematical tables: from Sumer to spreadsheets (2003, edited with Martin Campbell-KellyMartin Campbell-KellyMartin Campbell-Kelly is an English computer scientist based at the University of Warwick who has specialised in the history of computing.Campbell-Kelly is professor emeritus in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick. He is on the editorial board of the IEEE Annals of the...
, Mary Croarken, and Raymond G. Flood), Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780198508410, doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198508410.001.0001. This edited volume presents papers relating to a 2001 conference of the British Society for the History of MathematicsBritish Society for the History of MathematicsThe British Society for the History of Mathematics was founded in 1971 to promote research into the history of mathematics at all levels and to further the use of the history of mathematics in education....
on mathematical tableMathematical tableBefore calculators were cheap and plentiful, people would use mathematical tables —lists of numbers showing the results of calculation with varying arguments— to simplify and drastically speed up computation...
s. As well as co-editing the volume, Robson provided a paper tracing the history of tables back to 4500 years ago in the ancient Near EastNear EastThe Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
. - The Literature of Ancient Sumer (2006, with Jeremy BlackJeremy Black (Assyriologist)Jeremy Allen Black, BA, BPhil, MA, DPhil was a British Assyriologist and Sumerologist, founder of the online Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature....
, Graham Cunningham, and Gábor Zólyomi), Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780199296330. This book contains a selection of texts of Sumerian literatureSumerian literatureSumerian literature is the literature written in the Sumerian language during the Middle Bronze Age. Most Sumerian literature is preserved indirectly, via Assyrian or Babylonian copies....
, drawn from the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, an Oxford University project in which Robson is a participant. Unlike an earlier collection of Sumerian literature by Thorkild JacobsenThorkild JacobsenThorkild Jacobsen was a renowned historian specializing in Assyriology and Sumerian literature.He was one of the foremost scholars on the ancient Near East.-Biography:...
, the translations included in this collection are literal and in plain prose, even when they translate works of poetry. - Who Owns Objects?: The Ethics and Politics of Collecting Cultural Artefacts (2006, edited with Chris Gosden and Luke Treadwell), Oxbow Books, ISBN 9781842172339. This edited volume includes nine articles, many of which take a minority position that defends the collection and expatriation of artefacts from ancient cultures and that critiques the UNESCOUNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, which bars such collection. - Mathematics in ancient Iraq: a social history (2008), Princeton University Press, ISBN 9780691091822. This book is aimed at the general public, and explains both the mathematical ideas from the three-millennium-long history of ancient Mesopotamian mathematics and the context from which they arose. It is organized chronologically; two appendices tabulate Mesopotamian systems of measurement and index nearly all known mathematical clay tablets from the region.
- A Brief Introduction to Arabic Numerals (2008), Saqi Books, ISBN 9780863565847.
- The Oxford handbook of the history of mathematics (2009, edited with Jacqueline A. Stedall), Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780199213122. The 36 articles in this volume cover a wide range of geography and time. But although, as the title suggests, some of the contents are survey articles, many others are research papers.