"The SAW project is devoted to mathematical sources that have come down to us from the ancient world and, more specifically, though not exclusively, to the sources produced in Mesopotamia, China, and the Indian subcontinent. The scope of SAW is inspired by an analysis of the state of the art in the history of mathematics of the ancient world. The project also derives from an analysis of the present-day political and social uses of the history of ancient mathematical sciences worldwide. The ambition of SAW is to develop new theoretical approaches in the field of the history of ancient mathematics in order to highlight a motley of practices within what at the present day are too often presented as homogeneous wholes, that is, “Mesopotamian mathematics”, “Chinese mathematics”, and “Indian mathematics.” To this end, SAW intends to concentrate systematically on the mathematical sources produced in two sectors of activity in the ancient world: the practice of the astral sciences and the state administrations in charge of financial matters. The goal SAW has set itself is therefore to shape resources so as to promote new representations of mathematics and its history. The wider societal impact at which the project aims is to define analternative to widespread visions of mathematics that have made it possible for this field and its history to become tools playing a part in the shaping of communities worldwide. SAW will work to make the outcome of the research available to secondary school teachers, in order to contribute to bridge the widening gap between young people and mathematical sciences."