Nonetheless, the ancient Egyptians were very adept in using arithmetic to accomplish tasks in accounting and engineering. For the ancient Egyptians, numbers were quantities of physical objects rather than abstractions which existed separate from the objects that they described. For example, if you mentioned the number 7 to an ancient Egyptian, she would probably first think of a grouping of 7 objects rather than the concept of the number 7. Egyptian Mathematics as Revealed in the Rhind PapyrusĪncient Egyptians don’t appear to have thought abstractly about numbers. Most of what is known about how the Egyptians did mathematics is revealed in the Rhind papyrus and similar documents. These scribes, in addition to learning to read and write, also had to learn mathematics. The ancient Egyptian government needed to keep track of taxes and trade and it relied on a class of professional scribes. (Ad Meskens / CC BY-SA 3.0 )Īnother reason that mathematics was important to Egypt, and ancient civilizations in general, was maintaining a complex society. Ī section of the hieroglyphic calendar at the Kom Ombo Temple, displaying the transition from month XII to month I. Egyptian priests eventually used these calculations to create the Egyptian calendar. Because of this, the Egyptians were very careful to observe the motion of Sirius. For this reason, the ancient Egyptians taught themselves astronomy.Įgyptian priests eventually realized that the flooding season was heralded by the heliacal rising of the star Sirius. Because Egyptian farmers relied on the regular flooding of the Nile, it was helpful to know when the floods would come so that farmers could prepare. One was related to agriculture and the seasons. There are many reasons that the ancient Egyptians needed to learn mathematics. The fertile soil is one of the main reasons that Egypt was destined to become a center of civilization with the rise of agriculture. Regular flooding along the Nile makes the land around the river especially fertile for growing crops. It eventually ends in the Nile River delta which fans out into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile flows through limestone hills into a floodplain. Most of Egypt is a desert, but the Nile provides a long narrow strip of arable land. It has its origins with farming communities that emerged along the Nile river. Historical Background of Egyptian MathematicsĪncient Egypt was one of the first relatively advanced, centralized civilizations to emerge in the ancient Mediterranean region, and probably the world. Because the name of its original author is known, the Rhind papyrus is also occasionally referred to as the Ahmes papyrus. The mathematical problems reveal important information about how ancient Egyptians worked with multiplication, division, and fractions. It was written by a scribe by the name of Ahmes and consists of a series of practice problems for novice scribes. When it was first examined by scholars, it was found to be a mathematical document. The papyrus text is currently in the British Museum. It was found and purchased by Alexander Henry Rhind in 1858 from a Nile town in Egypt. The Rhind papyrus is a document dating to around 1,650 BC. But much of what scholars know of Egyptian mathematics comes from this text. One text that reveals an example of that wisdom is the Rhind papyrus, a document that appears to be an otherwise mundane primer on mathematics. For millennia, ancient Egypt has been considered synonymous with wisdom by the civilizations of the Mediterranean basin, but especially the West. Greek intellectuals, such as Thales, visited Egypt and were enamored by the design and mathematical exactness of the shape of the pyramids. Western civilization has always had a fascination with the civilization which grew up along the Nile River around 3,000 BC.
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