Science, Math & Technology: SMT in Civilization

While the website itself is not a primary source, it contains photographs of mathematical artifacts which are primary sources.

This online magazine article is not a primary source (it's secondary) but it does contain a photograph of an important primary source - a dirty sheaf of bamboo strips that were able to be cleaned and reassembled into a mathematical text, including a multiplication table that involved multiplying fractions. This places Chinese knowledge of advanced multiplication much earlier than we were previously able to demonstrate.

This website is not a primary source, but it contains photographs of cuneiform tablets that are primary sources. It also contains detailed explanations of Mesopotamian mathematics. Ancient Mesopotamian cultures (Sumer, Akkad, Babylon) had a base 60 numbering system without the number zero. They were able to do geometry and trigonometry, which they used for land surveying and astronomical time-keeping/astrology. They also used arithmetic in business and taxation.

Here you can download part or all of the Mayan Dresden Codex, a book that contained their mathematically calculated astronomical predictions. Mayan mathematics used a base 20 system, the concept of zero, and a notation method that made arithmetic very intuitive.

A collection of digitized Arabic language manuscripts from the scholarly heart of the Kingdom of Mali, Timbuktu. This collection includes both mathematical and astronomical manuscripts.

This website is not a primary source, but this page of the website contains images and translations of some major Egyptian mathematical papyri that you may wish to examine further as primary sources in their own right. Ancient Egypt did not invent the zero but were able to perform geometric and algebraic calculations for purposes of land surveying, architecture, and business/taxation.

"an independent educational research activity dedicated to the Research and Preservation of Vintage Computing Technologies."

Interviews, oral histories, and classic papers and patents.

This page is not a primary source (it's tertiary) but it contains photographs of primary sources - the wicker and bead star and ocean current charts created by ancient Polynesian Wayfinders (open oceangoing navigators) who were able to determine their latitude and direction using only the night sky, and know where they were in relation to islands too far away to see by noting changes in the waves.