The history of mathematics can be divided into three periods:
- The Measurement and Shapes period (<77,000BC – 600AD): Mathematics first rose to preeminence with the agricultural revolution, around ~8,000BC, as a “practical tool“ to organize economics and civilization(trade, accounting, taxes, etc.). Only with the Greeks (~600BC) did mathematics become a “pure subject“ which was pursued for the purpose of “understanding”. Unfortunately, the Roman Empire did not share the Greek’s interest in “pure knowledge” and Europe forgot much what it had learned for the next 1000 years.