Eleanor Robson facts for kids

Eleanor Robson is a British historian and expert on ancient Mesopotamia, a region that includes modern-day Iraq. Born in 1969, she is a professor at University College London, where she teaches about the history of the ancient Middle East. She is also a Fellow of the British Academy, which is a great honor for scholars in the humanities and social sciences.

Early Life and Education

Eleanor Robson was born in 1969. She loved learning about numbers and history from a young age. In 1990, she earned a degree in mathematics from the University of Warwick.

Later, she continued her studies at the University of Oxford. In 1995, she completed her PhD, which is a very high university degree. Her special research was about ancient Babylonian mathematics. She studied how people in Mesopotamia used math between 2100 and 1600 BC.

Exploring Ancient History

After finishing her studies, Eleanor Robson became a research fellow. This means she focused on doing research at universities. She worked at All Souls College, Oxford and then at the University of Cambridge.

Discovering Ancient Math

Eleanor Robson has written many books about ancient Mesopotamia and the history of mathematics. One of her most famous works is about a special clay tablet called Plimpton 322. This tablet comes from ancient Babylonia.

For a long time, people thought Plimpton 322 was a complex math table. But Eleanor Robson showed that it was likely a collection of school exercises. These exercises helped students learn how to solve problems involving right triangles. Her work helped us understand how math was taught in ancient times. In 2003, she won an award for this important discovery.

Protecting History

Eleanor Robson is also known for speaking out about protecting ancient artifacts. She criticized the U.S. government for not doing enough to prevent looting at the National Museum of Iraq in 2003. This museum held many priceless items from ancient Mesopotamia. She believes it's very important to keep these historical treasures safe.

Leading Research

From 2012 to 2017, Eleanor Robson was the leader of the Council for the British Institute for the Study of Iraq. This group helps people learn about and research Iraq's history and culture. She also received funding for a project called the Nahrein Network, which supports cultural heritage in Iraq.

Awards and Recognition

Eleanor Robson has received several important awards for her work.

• In 2011, she won the Pfizer Award from the History of Science Society. This award was for her book Mathematics in Ancient Iraq: A Social History.
• In June 2017, she was a visiting lecturer at the Collège de France, a famous institution in Paris.
• In 2022, she was chosen as a Fellow of the British Academy. This is a very high honor for scholars in the United Kingdom.

Books by Eleanor Robson

Eleanor Robson has written or co-written many books that help us understand ancient history and mathematics.

• Old Babylonian Coefficient Lists and the Wider Context of Mathematics in Ancient Mesopotamia, 2100–1600 BC (1995): This book was based on her PhD research.
• Mesopotamian Mathematics, 2100–1600 BC: Technical Constants in Bureaucracy and Education (1999): This book explores the special numbers and conversion factors used in ancient Babylonian math.
• The History of Mathematical Tables: From Sumer to Spreadsheets (2003): She helped edit this book, which looks at how math tables have been used throughout history, starting from ancient Sumer.
• The Literature of Ancient Sumer (2006): This book, co-written with other scholars, shares a collection of ancient Sumerian stories and poems.
• Who Owns Objects?: The Ethics and Politics of Collecting Cultural Artefacts (2006): This book discusses important questions about who should own ancient artifacts and how they should be protected.
• Mathematics in Ancient Iraq: A Social History (2008): This book explains the math ideas from ancient Mesopotamia in a way that's easy for everyone to understand. It also shows how math was part of daily life.
• The Oxford Handbook of the History of Mathematics (2009): She helped edit this large book, which covers many different topics in the history of mathematics from around the world.