The study of the Ancient World can be hugely rewarding, offering a rich, varied range of options for investigation and consideration. However, it's that very richness which can make it difficult to know exactly where to begin. To help, we've produced some suggestions for further reading on the three subjects we've focused on - cities, maths and medicine - and a range of courses which pick up on the themes of What The Ancients Did For Us.

Maths

Further Reading
The Exact Sciences in Antiquity
Neugebauer, O.
Dover, 2nd edition 1969

Science Awakening
Van der Waerden, B.L.
Oxford University Press, 1961

Mathematics in the Time of the Pharaohs
Gillings, R.J.
MIT Press, 1972

The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus - an ancient Egyptian text
Robins, G. and Shute, C.
British Museum Press, 1987.

Words and Pictures: New Light on Plimpton 322
Robson, E. in The American Mathematical Monthly 109, pp. 105-119, 2002.

Ancient Mathematics
Cuomo, S.
Routledge, 2001

History of Greek Mathematics (2 vols)
Heath, T. A
Dover, 1981

The following general histories include chapters on ancient mathematics:

The History of Mathematics: a Reader
Fauvel, J. and Gray, J.
Macmillan, 1987

A History of Mathematics. An Introduction
Katz, V.J.
Addison Wesley, 2nd edition 1998

A Concise History of Mathematics
Dover Struik, D.J.
4th edition 1987

Weblinks
The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive - An extremely extensive general history of mathematics website which includes pages on different branches of ancient mathematics including Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Arabic, Chinese, Mayan and Indian mathematics.

Mesopotamian Mathematics - Lots of interesting and historically accurate material and an extensive annotated bibliography. Links to images, copies, transliterations and translations of Mesopotamian mathematical tablets.

Egyptian Mathematics Problems - Some basic mathematical problems for high school pupils produced by artist Mark Millimore as part of his extensively illustrated Ancient Egypt site.

Egyptian Fractions - An investigation into Egyptian fractions using Mathematica. Several annotated links to other sites of interest on Egyptian mathematics.

Archimedes - An extremely rich collection of Archimedean miscellanea, including pages on different aspects of Archimedes' mathematics, books on Archimedes, information on Syracuse, and links to other related sites, eg a bibliography of Archimedean literature.

Euclid's Elements -A full text interactive version of Euclid's Elements with historical and mathematical comments. With a Java enabled browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer Version 3 or higher) it is possible to dynamically change the diagrams.

Library of Congress Vatican Exhibit Mathematics Room - A site containing annotated Greek and Latin manuscripts of mathematics and astronomy, with very high quality images including a 9th century edition of Euclid's Elements showing the Pythagorean Theorem and 13th and 15th century editions of Archimedes' Works.

Ancient India's Contribution to Mathematics - An accessible broad outline of the achievements of Indian mathematicians between 1000BC and 1000AD extracted from Birodkar Sudheer's book India's Contribution to World Culture.

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Content last updated: 13/01/2005

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