Approximately 1600 Kilometers east of the Nile lies the wide valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, also known as Mesopotamia. Thousands of years ago this land was home to the Sumerians, Chaldeans, Assyrians and Babylonians. In some respects their society was similar to that of Egypt; their priests were also mathematicians. The inhabitants of Mesopotamia traded with other countries, to the west with Lebanon, in the north with Asia Minor, to the east with India and perhaps even with China.
What we know of their mathematics, the clay tablets told us, on which they wrote. The Babylonians already owned around 2500 v. Chr. considerable mathematical knowledge. They had adopted cuneiform writing from the Sumerians, in which they wrote their letters and numbers. We owe several of our mathematical concepts and designations to these peoples.