There is evidence of mathematic activity in Mesopotamia as far back as 3,500 BC. Mathematical calculations were done in clay tablets. Clay was abundant in the fertile banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, where today's Iraq is situated. It was readily available, easy to gather, and extremely easy to mold with the bare hands. Babylonian students used clay to make notebooks for their mathematical calculations. As long as the clay remained wet, the embossed signs could be easily made and then erased by simply rubbing the surface of the tablet or adding moisture to it. This process could be repeated over and over again, until the clay dried out under the heavy Babylonian sun. The tablets were then recycled as construction materials in building foundations and walls –this is how some have been preserved in an immaculate state until today. One same material –clay- was useful for most human needs, from buildings to vases, from tableware to calculating tablets. This Babylonian clay tablet displays, as an object, many of the ambitions of design today: recyclability, use of natural, renewable, local materials, user-friendliness or customization, to name a few. Clay tablets were highly tactile objects that reminded users of their closeness to Earth, and the directness of using the hands as complex activators of mental discourse. In a world of excess and redundancy like ours, the freshness of this ephemeral object that exemplifies life cycle design without intending it, becomes especially inspiring.
