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Thread: Babylonians developed trigonometry 'superior' to modern day version 3,700 years ago

  1. #1

    Babylonians developed trigonometry 'superior' to modern day version 3,700 years ago



    The Ancient Babylonians knew about a form of trigonometry more advanced than the modern-day version – about 1,000 years before its supposed invention by the Ancient Greeks, academics in Australia say.
    The astonishing claim is based on a 3,700-year-old clay tablet inscribed with a table of numbers.
    Known as Plimpton 322, it is already known to contain evidence that the Babylonians knew Pythagoras’ famous equation for right-angled triangles, long before the Greek philosopher gave his name to it.


    And researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have claimed it also shows the Babylonians developed a highly sophisticated form of trigonometry – the system of maths used to describe angles that has tortured generations of school pupils with sine, cosine and tangent.
    The city of Babylon in Mesopotamia, an early cradle of human civilisation in what is now Iraq, was famed for its Hanging Gardens, said to be one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.

    And mathematician Dr Daniel Mansfield suggested its people developed trigonometry to help their architects design the city’s major buildings.

    “Our research shows it’s a trigonometric table so unfamiliar and advanced that in some respects it’s superior to modern trigonometry,” he said.
    “We’ve discovered these lines represent the ratios for a series of right-angled triangles ranging from almost a square to almost a flat line.
    “This makes Plimpton 322 a powerful tool that could have been used for surveying fields or architectural calculations to build palaces, temples or step pyramids.”
    Dr Mansfield explained that the Babylonians’ system of counting enabled them to perform complicated calculations more easily that mathematicians today.
    “The Babylonians unique approach to arithmetic and geometry means this is not only the world’s oldest trigonometric table, it’s also the only completely accurate trigonometric table on record,” he said.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...-a7910936.html
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  2. #2
    This new development has inspired me to review back over Sumerian and Babylonian ancient history... especially within the context of those different ancient astronaut theories out there that range from Sitchin's work, whose books I've read years ago but will review over again... and contactee testimonial accounts, like Alex Collier's, for example.
    Then, of course, there's Erich von Däniken and Graham Hancock's material too.
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  3. #3
    Read about this very interesting

    Here is the research paper
    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...15086017300691

  4. #4
    Where is the evolution of thought from science? Nowhere to be found. They can't even come up with a tenable evolution of consciousness. And yet we look at the records from the Sumerians and they tell us point blank they were taught and given the art of civilization.

  5. #5
    There are so many gaping holes wrt ancient history and the start of civilization but this new information about that Babylonian tablet with that advanced trig. on it, is just too much for me to wrap my mind around. With information like that, how can one NOT want to consider the possibility of an advanced race of people from the stars coming here to teach us everything we needed know to progress to a much more advanced culture. It's like we went from sticks and stones and living in caves to the formation of a primitive agrarian society to....presto! scientifically advanced city-states!
    Last edited by A99; 09-10-2017 at 01:29 AM.
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    For it is in giving that we receive.
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  6. #6
    Interesting trivia:
    Studies have reported that most
    Irish and Britons are descendants of farmers who left modern day Iraq and Syria 10,000 years ago (Mesopotamia).[12]Genetic researchers say they have found compelling evidence that four out of five (80%) of whiteEuropeans can trace their roots to the Near East.[12] In another study, scientists analysed DNA from the 8,000-year-old remains of early farmers found at an ancient graveyard in Germany. They compared the genetic signatures to those of modern populations and found similarities with the DNA of people living in today's Turkey and Iraq.
    [13

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamia


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  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Sansanoy View Post
    Where is the evolution of thought from science? Nowhere to be found. They can't even come up with a tenable evolution of consciousness. And yet we look at the records from the Sumerians and they tell us point blank they were taught and given the art of civilization.
    For anyone who wants to answer this question for me....

    Just wondering but which theory holds more water? The ancient astronauts/Annunaki theory or Graham Hancocks 'magicians of the gods/the shining ones/the ancient ones theory?


    Note: Hancock does not believe that advanced information was handed over to the Sumerians by ETs. In fact, in his theory, ET's aren't even in the picture. In his opinion, it (advanced info) comes from survivors of Atlantis (his 'Atlantis was not in just one location but was much more expansive)
    Last edited by A99; 09-17-2017 at 08:01 PM.
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    For it is in giving that we receive.
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  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by A99 View Post
    For anyone who wants to answer this question for me....

    Just wondering but which theory holds more water? The ancient astronauts/Annunaki theory or Graham Hancocks 'magicians of the gods/the shining ones/the ancient ones theory?


    Note: Hancock does not believe that advanced information was handed over to the Sumerians by ETs. In fact, in his theory, ET's aren't even in the picture. In his opinion, it (advanced info) comes from survivors of Atlantis (his 'Atlantis was not in just one location but was much more expansive)
    iirc the "astronaut" theory of Sitchin includes fuel propulsion travel. That is not physically possible for the distances they are traversing. I think Graham has it right when he says they are gods....well, more accurately they are Elohim. Elohim doesn't translate to English very well, so it gets rendered "gods". Elohim is vastly different than the English word god but the general idea of Graham is right.

  9. #9
    I could post, but would have to search for it, a fairly recent interview Hancock did wrt his book that came out last year entitled 'Magicians of the Gods' where he's saying the magicians were human survivors from Atlantis. That, prior to the comet and the flood, humanity had thousands of years to develop advanced technology.

    He said that after the flood, most of the survivors were people from primitive populations who lived off the land. They were like the natives of the Amazon that we have now. They survived because they knew how to live in nature. Nevertheless, there were also a few survivors from Atlantis' advanced regions too who, in order to continue surviving, had to take refuge amongst those primitives. The survivors from Atlantis' advanced cultures (the magicians of the gods, as he called them) passed on their advanced knowledge to those primitive survivors resulting in the advancement of their culture from a caveman-like existence and onward towards advanced city-states.

    That's where Hancock is now with this. Basing all of the above on memory so not sure if I got everything right. Will see if I can find that You Tube interview and post it here.
    Last edited by A99; 09-18-2017 at 12:30 AM.
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    For it is in giving that we receive.
    ~ St. Francis of Assisi

  10. #10
    According to the legend the Atlanteans were demigods of Oceanus. There are legends in the Mediterranean (Malta? iirc) and the Americas about an escape from a great flood and it certainly fits the historical record where we see sudden and aberrant complexity in the historical record. The Atlanteans, sophisticated however they were, still lost to Greece and it's surrounding region. So there may be two sources of advancement out there instead of just one. Perhaps it's why the Americas and the Mediterranean/Europe are so vastly different, but equally complex. IIRC Graham places Egypt as a decedent of Atlantis. The area of Egypt was actually under siege by Atlantis during the war before the flood. However two Atlantean kings defected to the other side, the side of the 12 Olympians. It's possible one of those defectors is responsible for Egypt's uniqueness in the Mediterranean and it's differences from the Americas. At the time of their end, Atlantis became exceedingly wicked, which fits the Americas quite well. The two defectors I imagine had some revulsion over the wickedness of Atlantis and perhaps that is why Egypt turned out relatively more benevolent (- the first pharaoh that had his entire care staff killed to serve him in death)

    (speaking from the writings of Plato)
    Last edited by Sansanoy; 09-18-2017 at 01:31 AM.

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