TITLE: Towards Infinity and Beyond in Babylonian Mathematics and Astronomy
ABSTRACT: Ancient Mesopotamian mathematics and astronomy are represented by thousands of cuneiform tablets ranging in date from the mid-third millennium BCE to the end of cuneiform writing in the first century CE. This paper examines the notion of infinity in time, space, and mathematical notation through a selection of cuneiform mathematical, astronomical, and mythological works bringing us time and place from the beginnings of the universe to the scribal academy, and onwards to a possible realm of infinity above and beyond the limits of the Earth’s Surface.