Mathematical Texts (II): Tradition, Transmission, Development

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Imhausen
Keyword(s):  
Roman Period ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Mathematical Problems ◽  
Egyptian Culture ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Egyptian History ◽  
Mathematical Texts

The Greco-Roman Period is the second time in Egyptian history for which a significant corpus of mathematical texts happens to be extant. They are written in the Egyptian script and language of that time, that is, demotic, and are, therefore, commonly known as “demotic mathematical texts.” This chapter presents an overview of the extant sources and some questions that can be raised—as our knowledge of the Egyptian culture during that period is still growing rapidly at the moment. It also outlines some significant changes in Egyptian mathematics that happened in the nearly 1500 years are between the hieratic and demotic mathematical texts and considers selected examples of demotic mathematical problems.

Mathematics in Ancient Egypt

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Imhausen
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Knowledge ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Old Kingdom ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Unit Fractions ◽  
Egyptian Culture ◽  
Mathematical Techniques ◽  
Egyptian History

This book traces the development of Egyptian mathematics, from the end of the fourth millennium BC—and the earliest hints of writing and number notation—to the end of the pharaonic period in Greco-Roman times. The book surveys three thousand years of Egyptian history to present an integrated picture of theoretical mathematics in relation to the daily practices of Egyptian life and social structures. It shows that from the earliest beginnings, pharaonic civilization used numerical techniques to efficiently control and use their material resources and labor. Even during the Old Kingdom, a variety of metrological systems had already been devised. By the Middle Kingdom, procedures had been established to teach mathematical techniques to scribes in order to make them proficient administrators for their king. The book looks at counterparts to the notation of zero, suggests an explanation for the evolution of unit fractions, and analyzes concepts of arithmetic techniques. It draws connections and comparisons to Mesopotamian mathematics, examines which individuals in Egyptian society held mathematical knowledge, and considers which scribes were trained in mathematical ideas and why. Of interest to historians of mathematics, mathematicians, Egyptologists, and all those curious about Egyptian culture, the book sheds new light on a civilization's unique mathematical evolution.

Mathematical Texts (I): The Mathematical Training of Scribes

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Imhausen
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Mathematics ◽  
Actual Situation ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Old Kingdom ◽  
Mathematical Procedure ◽  
The Future ◽  
Mathematical Problems ◽  
Mathematical Texts

This chapter discusses mathematical texts that originated from the Middle Kingdom. While this may well be caused by the vagaries of preservation, it might be that it reflects the actual situation, that is, that mathematical texts of the kind that we have from the Middle Kingdom did not exist in earlier periods. With the reestablishment of central power by the king in the Middle Kingdom also came about a complete new organization of the administrative apparatus that was designed to be much less independent than it had been at the end of the Old Kingdom. And this may well have entailed the organization of teaching mathematics to the future scribes in a centrally organized style, with prescribed problems and their solutions. The chapter considers extant hieratic mathematical texts, mathematical procedure texts, and types of mathematical problems.

Egypt’s Coptic Museum: From Patriarchal to National

2020 ◽  
pp. 181-204
Author(s):  
Dina Ishak Bakhoum
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Religious Nature ◽  
Egyptian History

This chapter traces the most significant episodes of the Coptic Museum’s history and argues that the museum was not founded as a ‘minority’ museum but rather as an archaeological museum holding valuable religious Coptic art. Its foundation aimed at demonstrating that Coptic material culture had equivalent value in Egyptian history to Pharaonic, Greco-Roman and Islamic arts, which in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries already had their own museums. Unlike other museums, however, the Coptic Museum was established under the aegis of the Patriarch, giving it an unconventional status within Egyptian heritage owing to the religious nature of its initial collection. The essay presents the museum’s foundation during the early nineteenth century and discusses the context of its nationalization and transformation into a public domain museum (1931) as well as its expansion (1947).

Early Jewish Interpretation

2020 ◽  
pp. 103-158
Author(s):  
Michael E. Pregill
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Community ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Translation ◽  
Golden Calf ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Religious Landscape

This chapter examines the earliest traditions of interpretation of the Golden Calf narrative, found in Jewish literature of the Greco-Roman period; these early retellings of the narrative are deeply colored by apologetic concerns. Major shifts in interpretation can be charted over the course of a few short centuries during this era due to rapid changes in the cultural and religious landscape. While the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, is frank regarding the Israelites’ sin of idolatry, the versions of the Golden Calf episode found in Philo, Pseudo-Philo, and Josephus are concerned to minimize the impact of attacks on the Jewish community and its traditions from gentile outsiders, and so represent the story in ways intended to mitigate the impression of Israel’s idolatry. Early rabbinic exegetes, in contrast, are relatively candid about Israel’s sin with the Calf. However, the emergence of the Christian movement, which entailed the revision of numerous biblical stories, including new understandings of the Calf narrative, induced rabbinic exegetes to approach the Calf narrative with a new sense of circumspection and caution in order to counter rival interpretations that were potentially harmful to the reputation and self-conception of the Jewish community.

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