A 36-Times Table

Below is an example of an Old Babylonian cuneiform tablet showing a standard multiplication table with principal number 36. The tablet is UM 29-15-485, from the University of Pennsylvania. The tablet is an example of the most common type of multiplication table, beginning with the line '36 a-ra 1 36'  and then continuing 'a-ra 21,12', 'a-ra 3  1, 48' 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.

Picture of tablet

This tablet was originally published by Neugebauer and Sachs in Mathematical Cuneiform Texts.


I thank Professor E. Leichty for permission to use the images of the tablets.


Go to Mesopotamian Mathematics.


Last modified: 7 June 2001

Duncan J. Melville

dmelville@stlawu.edu