One of the first known tangram puzzle was in Stomachion, a treatise attributed to Archimedes. This puzzle consisted of 14 pieces that together formed a square and was very popular in Greece and the Roman Empire up to the 500's. The Latin name of the puzzle was loculus Archimedius - Archimedes box. The pieces were used to make people and animals, and various objects.
Today Tangram is derived from the 1700s but not published until 1813. Then, it contained even more 300 imaginative figures. Today there are over 2000 figures to make