Education and career
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In her thesis work, Proust edited and analyzed two long-neglected collections of Old Babylonian mathematical tablets that constitute part of the vast trove of artifacts excavated at Nippur by John Punnett Peters, John Henry Haynes and Hermann Hilprecht in the late 1800s.[9][10] This work resulted in the publication of two books, 'Tablettes mathématiques de Nippur' and 'Tablettes mathématiques de la collection Hilprecht'.[11][12]
The first is an edition of the tablets housed at the Museum of the Ancient Orient in Istanbul and an improved reconstruction of the curriculum for elementary scribal education in mathematics at Old Babylonian Nippur, the second an edition of the tablets housed in the Hilprecht Collection at the University of Jena. (Other Nippur tablets at the University of Pennsylvania and had been previously studied by Eleanor Robson.)
Proust's work produced the most detailed reconstruction of the process of elementary scribal education at Old Babylonian Nippur, including the curriculum and timelines, the interaction of education in Sumerian language and mathematics (Sumerian was a foreign language to the Akkadian speakers of the Old Babylonian era), and the interaction between metrological calculation and abstract calculation using sexagesimal place-value notation.
With Alexander Jones she curated the exhibit Before Pythagoras: The Culture of Old Babylonian Mathematics (2010–2011) at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) in New York in which a number of mathematically important clay tablets, including YBC 7289 and Plimpton 322 were on display.[4] Proust has also been involved in study of the papers and correspondence of the noted historian Otto Neugebauer, who largely initiated the study of mathematical cuneiform texts in the mid-twentieth century. Some of this material was on display at the ISAW exhibit
Proust is the author of Tablettes mathématiques de Nippur (De Boccard, 2007)[10] and of Tablettes mathématiques de la collection Hilprecht (Harrassowitz, 2008).[9]
She is the editor of books including:
- Scientific Sources and Teaching Contexts Throughout History: Problems and Perspectives (with Alain Bernard, Springer, 2014)
- A Mathematician's Journeys: Otto Neugebauer and Modern Transformations of Ancient Science (with Alexander Jones and John Steele, Springer, 2016)[13]
- Scholars and Scholarship in Late Babylonian Uruk (with John Steele, Springer, 2019)[14]
- ^ Birth year from idref authority control file, retrieved 2020-09-10
- ^ Members, SAW ERC project, retrieved 2019-05-09
- ^ a b c "PROUST Christin", Members, SPHERE laboratory, retrieved 2020-09-10
- ^ a b "Meet the Curators", Before Pythagoras: The Culture of Old Babylonian Mathematics, New York University, retrieved 2020-09-10
- ^ a b Prix Paul Doistau-Emile Blutet
- Christine Proust, lauréate du Prix Paul Doistau-Emile Blutet de l'Académie des Sciences (in French), SPHERE laboratory, retrieved 2020-09-10
- Grands prix attribués en 2011 (PDF), Institut de France, Académie des Sciences, 4 July 2011, p. 5, retrieved 2019-05-09
- Christine Proust, awarded with Price Paul Doistau-Emile Blutet de l'Académie des Sciences, retrieved 2019-05-09
- Prix Paul Doistau-Emile Blutet 2011, CultureMATH, retrieved 2019-05-09
- ^ Institute for Advanced Study - Past member - Christine Proust, retrieved 2019-05-09
- ^ Christine Proust—Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, retrieved 2019-05-09
- ^ Christine Proust, IMéRA - Institute for Advanced Study, retrieved 2019-05-10
- ^ a b Review of Tablettes mathématiques de la collection Hilprecht:
- Gundlach, Karl-Bernhard, zbMATH, Zbl 1166.01004
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- Melville, Duncan J. (2009), Bowen, Alan C.; Rihll, Tracey E. (eds.), "Review", Aestimatio: Critical Reviews in the History of Science, 6: 222–226, doi:10.31826/9781463232436-031
- Michel, Cécile (2010), MathSciNet, MR 2532739
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- Brunke, Hagan (January 2013), Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, 103 (2), Walter de Gruyter {GmbH}: 250–252, doi:10.1515/za-2013-0015
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- Nemet-Nejat, Karen (April–June 2013), Journal of the American Oriental Society, 133 (2): 372–374, doi:10.7817/jameroriesoci.133.2.0372, JSTOR 10.7817/jameroriesoci.133.2.0372
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- ^ a b Review of Tablettes mathématiques de Nippur:
- Friberg, Jöran (2011), Archiv für Orientforschung, 52: 259–263, JSTOR 24595125
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- Brunke, Hagan (January 2013), Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, 103 (2), Walter de Gruyter {GmbH}: 250–252, doi:10.1515/za-2013-0015
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: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
- ^ Tablettes mathématiques de Nippur. Première partie: Reconstitution du cursus scolaire. Deuxième partie: Édition des tablettes conservées au Musée Archéologique d'Istanbul, avec la collaboration de Veysel Donbaz et d'Asuman Dönmez. Translittération des textes lexicaux et littéraires par Antoine Caivigneaux, Varia Anatolica, vol. XVIII, Istanbul: Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes Georges - Dumézil, 2007, ISBN 978-2-906053-92-2
- ^ Tablettes mathématiques de la collection Hilprecht. Avec la collaboration de Manfred Krebernik et Joachim Oelsner, Texte und Materialien der Hilprecht Collection, vol. 8, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-447-05705-9
- ^ Reviews of A Mathematician's Journeys:
- Haack, Joel (January 2017), "Review", MAA Reviews, Mathematical Association of America
- Rochberg, Francesca (August 2017), "Neugebauer and premodern science", Journal for the History of Astronomy, 48 (3), {SAGE} Publications: 354–357, doi:10.1177/0021828617717126, S2CID 125658610
- ^ Reviews of Scholars and Scholarship in Late Babylonian Uruk:
- ^ Christine Proust, International Academy of the History of Science, retrieved 2020-09-12
- ^ Barrow-Green, June (2021). "Awarding of the May Prizes for 2021". Historia Mathematica. 56: 1–3. doi:10.1016/j.hm.2021.08.001.