Tips on writing a History of Mathematics Essay I'm a third year maths undergrad currently taking a 'History and Development of Mathematics' module.
As a maths student, you can probably guess my skills at writing an essay are a little (if not very) dusty, and wondered if anyone could give me some tips on how to structure it, and if there is anything vital I need to include?
The title is "What influence did the Pre-Christianity Babylonians and Greeks have in the development of mathematical astronomy?"
 A: 
If anyone could give me some tips on how to structure it

Babylon


*

*Babylonian Mathematics

*Babylonian Astronomy $1$

*Babylonian Astronomy $2$

*Babylonian Numerals
Greece (and Egypt, which lies just across the Mediterranean)


*

*Greek Mathematics

*

*Egyptian Geometry $1$

*Egyptian Geometry $2$

*Egyptian Algebra


*Greek Mathematicians $1$

*Greek Mathematicians $2$

*Greek Astronomy $0$ — Egyptian Astronomy

*Greek Astronomy $1$

*Greek Astronomy $2$

*Greek Astronomers $1$

*Greek Astronomers $2$

*

*Eratosthenes

*Ptolemy — Post-Christian, but pagan. (Not so sure what you mean by “Pre-Christian”).

*The Almagest


*Greek Astronomic Inventions

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*The Astrolabe

*The Antikythera Mechanism
Hope some of this helps.
A: The "pre-christianity" part of the title is bizarre. Pretty much everything the
Babylonians did is pre-Christian. Even the Greeks did almost nothing in mathematics and astronomy after Christianity arrived on the shores of Alexandria or on the mainlands of Greece.
Other than that, there's not much you can do except reading Neugebauer (Exact Sciences in Antiquity) and Ossendrijver for the Babylonian part. As for Greek astronomy, check the web for the contributions of Eratosthenes, Aristarch and Ptolemy.
