• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.223-236
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• 2020

We examine how the formulas of the area and the circumference of a circle related to pi in the ancient Egyptian and the Old Babylonian fields of mathematics have been controversial. In particular, the Great Pyramid of Khufu, Ahmes Papyrus Problem 48 and Moscow Mathematical Papyrus Problem 10 have raised extensive controversy over π. We propose the pi-theory of the Great Pyramid of Khufu as a dynamic symmetry based on Euclid's rectangle. In addition, we argue that the ancient Egyptian or Old Babylonian mathematics influenced Solomon's Molten Sea, Plato and Archimedes' pi.

• Lingua Humanitatis
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• v.7
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• pp.157-203
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• 2005

The Epic of Gilgamesh drew heavily upon Mesopotamian literary tradition. Sin-leqe-uninni, the editor of Standard Version of the Epic of Gilgamesh in 13th century B.C.E. adopted the Old Babylonian version as well as older Sumerian tales about Gilgamesh. He also was very successful by extensive use of materials and literary forms originally unrelated to Gilgamesh. The epic opens with a standard type of hymnic-epic prologue. This study lens a measure of vindication to the theoretical approach by which Morris Jastrow recognized the diversity of the sources, which underlies the epic and succeeded in identifying some of them. Thanks to the ample documentation available for the literary development of the epic, we can trace the steps which its author and editors took with the result that the epic inspires fears and aspirations for more than three thousand years.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.643-654
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to examine the implications of religious activities to longevity in a perspective of religious people in the ancient near east. The major sources of the study are the records of Adad-Guppi in the Neo-Babylonian Empire, prayers of Daniel in the Old Testament and records of Anna in the New Testament. The research method is a synchronic method based on final forms of the texts. Adad-Guppi lived for 104 years with temple-centered lives, fasting-like dedication, prayer and mission for the nation. Daniel fasted and prayed for the return of Jewish nation, and restoration of the city and the temple in Jerusalem, resulting in longevity of late eighties in the court of Babylon. Anna lived for more than 100 years old with her life mission for the messiah in spite of limitations of her times as an old widow. The implications of religious activities with temple-centered lives, fasting, prayer, and mission for the ages are understood to be beneficial to longevity in a perspective of the ancient near east.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.45-56
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• 2007

The aims of the study were to review the transcriptions of the famous cuneiform tablet 'Plimpton 322' and interpret the meanings of the numbers. Since the tablet was found, many scholars tried to interpretate the relation among numbers. Neugebauer & Sacks, Buck, and Robson's finding are reviewed. This tablet must be the most well known and taken as an important role to complete a proof of the Pytagoras' theorem before the development of Greek Mathematics.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.159-173
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• 2019

In this paper, we examine the brief history of the ring of four almonds regarding Mesopotamian mathematics, and present reasons why the Omar Khayyam's triangle, a special right triangle in a ring of four almonds, was essential for artisans due to its unique pattern. We presume that the ring of four almonds originated from a point symmetry figure given two concentric squares used in the proto-Sumerian Jemdet Nasr period (approximately 3000 B.C.) and a square halfway between two given concentric squares used during the time of the Old Akkadian period (2340-2200 B.C.) and the Old Babylonian age (2000-1600 B.C.). Artisans tried to create a new intricate pattern as almonds and 6-pointed stars by subdividing right triangles in the pattern of the popular altered Old Akkadian square band at the time. Therefore, artisans needed the Omar Khayyam's triangle, whose hypotenuse equals the sum of the short side and the perpendicular to the hypotenuse. We presume that artisans asked mathematicians how to construct the Omar Khayyam's triangle at a meeting between artisans and mathematicians in Isfahan. The construction of Omar Khayyam's triangle requires solving an irreducible cubic polynomial. Omar Khayyam was the first to classify equations of integer polynomials of degree up to three and then proceeded to solve all types of cubic equations by means of intersections of conic sections. Omar Khayyam's triangle gave practical meaning to the type of cubic equation $x^3+bx=cx^2+a$. The work of Omar Khayyam was completed by Descartes in the 17th century.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.12-31
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• 1997

This is a study on the changes of the ancient underclothes. Underclothing includes all such articles, worn by either sex, as were completely or mainly concealed from the spectator by the external costume. Functions of underclothes are follow ; to protect the body from cold, to support the shape of the costume, to cleanliness, to erotic use of underclothes and as a method of class distinction. Linen is the oldest as materials and cotton came into general use after the Restoration of 1660. We must suppose that woolen petticoat was at least as old as the Middle Ages and silk was rarely used until late in Victorian times. Until the middle of the last century underclothes were necessarily hand-made, and the absence of fit was noticeable until the introduction of man\`s drawers, fitting the leg, at the close of the eighteen century. Strings and ribbons were the fastenings for underclothes until the middle of the seventeenth century, when they were replaced by buttons. One outstanding example of the first type of figures is a Babylonian girl of about 3000 BC from Sumeria who wears that today would immediately be described as briefs. Female statues show no trace of anything being worn under the chiton, but there is literary evidenced that the Greeks. A band of linen of kid was bound round the waist and lower torso to shape and control it. It was known as the Zone or girdle. The apodesmos, meaning a band, breast band, occurs in a fragment of Aristophanes. A Roman mosaic shows female athletes wearing a bikini-briefs and bra in the fourth century AD. A similar band, called the mastodeton, or breast band, was also worn round the bust, apparently to flatten or minimise it, as in the 1920s, and not, to stress its curves. In Rome, too, women sometimes wore bands of material round the hips and bust-a cestus or girdle is referred to by the poet Martial and seems to have been similar to the zone, but wider, and the strophium, or breast band, is mentioned by Cicero.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.381-405
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• 2015

The nature of school mathematics has not been asked from the epistemological perspective. In this paper, I compare two dominant perspectives of school mathematics: ethnomathematics and didactical transposition theory. Then, I show that there exist some examples from Old Babylonian (OB) mathematics, which is considered as the oldest school mathematics by the recent contextualized anthropological research, cannot be explained by above two perspectives. From this, I argue that the nature of school mathematics needs to be understand from new perspective and its meaning needs to be extended to include students' and teachers' products emergent from the process of teaching and learning. From my investigation about OB school mathematics, I assume that there exist an intrinsic function of school mathematics: Linking scholarly Mathematics(M) and everyday mathematics(m). Based on my assumption, I suggest the chain of ESMPR(Educational Setting for Mathematics Practice and Readiness) and ESMCE(Educational Setting For Mathematical Creativity and Errors) as a mechanism of the function of school mathematics.