Ancient Egyptian Mathematics

Beginning in 3000 BC the Ancient Egyptian civilization was quite advanced. Having a prime spot of realty was a great help, giving the Egyptians a reliable flooding of the Nile in order to fertilize the farmland. With a single ruler, sophisticated agriculture, complex government, armies, and their own method of writing called hieroglyphics, the Egyptian people were well on their way. But with such a complex society developing around them they began to require the need for counting and organizing their society with numbers.

While the Egyptian number system is not as useful in calculations as other options, they did develop a system that even made room for fractions. Using ingenious methods of calculation, they gave themselves ways to complete simple arithmetic including multiplication and division.

The Egyptians also developed papyrus, which is a reed plant that was spread out and dried, in order to write down their calculations and records. Unfortunately, papyrus was not ideal to stand the test of time, and most of the writings are lost.

An example of papyrus used by the ancient Egyptians.