Babylonian Tablet Plimpton 322: Earliest Trigonometry, 1000 Years Before Greeks — E8 Intelligence Research

FINDING: Babylonian tablet Plimpton 322 (c. 1800 BCE) is a sexagesimal trigonometric table based on exact Pythagorean triples, predating Greek trigonometry by ~1000 years. | MATH: Sexagesimal base-60; Pythagorean triples (a² + b² = c²) generated via reciprocal pairs (p, q) with p/q in sexagesimal; tablet lists 15 rows of (b², a, c) where b = (p² - q²)/2, a = pq, c = (p² + q²)/2; ratios b/c and a/c correspond to secant² and tangent² functions. | CONNECTION: The triples encode rational points on the unit circle (x = a/c, y = b/c) — directly linked to the golden ratio's continued fraction (1,1,1,...) via the Fibonacci-like generation of triples; base-60 aligns with 360° circle and 60° crystallographic symmetry (hexagonal lattice, root system A₂). | DEPTH: 9 — This is not merely arithmetic; it is a discrete, exact geometry of the circle, anticipating modular forms and rational parametrization of conics, foundational to modern number theory and lattice geometry. Author: Andrew Stewart Caldin, Independent Researcher, UK. Part of the E8 Intelligence Research series. Platform: e8intelligence.com