Multiplication table from 1,800 years ago found in Hunan

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, March 08, 2004

Multiplication table from 1,800 years ago found in Hunan

Archeologists claimed that they had found a multiplication table at the Gurendi cultural relics ofthe Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) in Zhangjiajie, central China's Hunan Province.

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Archeologists claimed that they had found a multiplication table at the Gurendi cultural relics ofthe Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) in Zhangjiajie, central China's Hunan Province.

The table was discovered on a 22cm-long wooden strip which was broken when it was discovered and the handwriting on it is quite illegible.

"We can see that the multiplication table begins at nine times nine equals 81, in a sequence that is the inverted opposite of modern tables, which start at one times one is one," said Zhang Chunlong, a research member with Hunan Archaeological Research Institute.

This is the second time Zhang has come across traditional Chinese multiplication tables inscribed on wooden strips. The others were found on a wooden strip of the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206BC), the oldest ever discovered in China, excavated at a site in Liye City in Hunan Province in June 2002.

An expert with China Cultural Relics Research Institute said another multiplication table similar the newly unearthed one was discovered in documents from Loulan, which was written on two pieces of paper and discovered by Swedish explorer Sven Hedin a century ago.

"Ancient Chinese were not the only people inventing multiplication tables as they have also been discovered on the clay tablets from ancient Babylon," said Liu Dun, director of the Institute of History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"But as the pronunciation of Chinese words is monosyllabic, thetraditional Chinese multiplication table can be read smoothly and easily to be remembered and used," said Liu.

The excavation of the Gurendi cultural relics site began in April 1987. So far, 90 wooden strips of the Eastern Han Dynasty have been unearthed, covering a wide variety of subjects, including laws and regulations, prescriptions, official documents,letters, calendars and multiplication tables.

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