Cuneiform Discovery: Susa mathematical tablet geometry problems — E8 Intelligence Research

**Discovery: The Susa Geometric Tablets (TMS 1–3, MDP 10) and the Sexagesimal Encoding of √2** The Susa mathematical corpus (Louvre TMS 1–3, published in *Textes Mathématiques de Suse*; MDP 10), excavated at ancient Šušan (Elam) c. 1900–1700 BCE, demonstrates a procedural geometry centuries ahead of Greek formalization. Unlike the school exercises of Nippur (e.g., YBC 7289), these tablets are professional scribal references for surveyors and architects, calculating areas of circles, annuli, and irregular fields using a standardized π-value of **3** (explicitly "3 times the square of the radius") and a sophisticated sexagesimal approximation for the diagonal of a square. **Specific Calculations & Inscribed Values** Tablet **TMS 1** (obverse) solves for the side of a square given the diagonal. The problem states: *"The diagonal is 0;30 (30/60). What is the side?"* The scribe computes the reciprocal of the diagonal constant. The calculation recorded is: > **0;30 × 0;42 25 35 = 0;21 12 4 Author: Andrew Stewart Caldin, Independent Researcher, UK. Part of the E8 Intelligence Research series. Platform: e8intelligence.com