Development of Science in Africa

1. Development of Science in
ANCIENT AFRICA
Scientists believe that Africa was the birthplace of mankind. By 100,000 BC modern humans lived by hunting and gathering
with stone tools. From Africa, they spread to Europe.
By 5,000 farming had spread to North Africa. People herded cattle and they grew crops. At that time the Sahara Desert
was not a desert. It was a green and fertile area. Gradually it grew drier and became a desert.
Meanwhile about 3,200 BC writing was invented in Egypt. The Egyptians made tools and weapons of bronze. However, by
the time Egyptian civilization arose most of Africa was cut off from Egypt and other early civilizations by the Sahara Desert.
Sub-Saharan Africa was also hampered by its lack of good harbors, which made transport by sea difficult.
Farmers in Africa continued to use stone tools and weapons however about 600 BC the use of iron spread in North Africa.
It gradually spread south and by 500 AD iron tools and weapons had reached what is now South Africa.
About 480 BC the Phoenicians from what is n ow Lebanon founded the city of Carthage in Tunisia. Carthage later fought
wars with Rome and in 202 BC the Romans defeated the Carthaginians at the battle of Zama. In 146 BC Rome destroyed
the city of Carthage and made its territory part of their empire.
Meanwhile Egyptian influence spread along the Nile and the kingdoms of Nubia and Kush arose in what is now Sudan. By
100 AD the kingdom of Axum in Ethiopia was highly civilized. Axum traded with Rome, Arabia, and India. Axum became
Christian in the 4th century AD.
Meanwhile the Roman Empire continued to expand. In 30 BC Egypt became a province of Rome. Morocco was absorbed
in 42 AD. However, the rest of Africa was cut off from Rome by the Sahara Desert.
AFRICA IN THE MIDDLE AGES
In 642 the Arabs conquered Egypt. In 698-700 they took Tunis and Carthage and soon they controlled all of the coasts of
North Africa. The Arabs were Muslims, of course, and soon the whole coast of North Africa converted to Islam. Ethiopia
remained Christian but it was cut off from Europe by the Muslims.
After 800 AD organized kingdoms emerged in northern Africa. They traded with the Arabs further north. (Trade with the
Arabs led to the spread of Islam to other parts of Africa). Arab merchants brought luxury goods and salt. In return, they
purchased gold and slaves from the Africans.
One of the earliest African kingdoms was Ghana (It included parts of Mali and Mauritania as well as the modern country
of Ghana). By the 9th century, Ghana was called the land of gold. However, Ghana was destroyed in the 11th century by
Africans from further north.
By the 11th century the city of Ife in Southwest Nigeria was the capital of a great kingdom. From the 12th century
craftsmen from Ife made terracotta sculptures and bronze heads. However, by the 16th century, Ife was declining.
Africa is blessed with natural and mineral
resources. Science also emerged in this part
of the planet long before the European
colonized it. The history of science and
mathematics show similar to other ancient
civilizations, the early civilizations in Africa
are knowledge producers, too.

2. Another African state was Benin. (The medieval kingdom of Benin was bigger than the modern country). From the 13th
century, Benin was rich and powerful.
Meanwhile the kingdom of Mali was founded in the 13th century. By the 14th century, Mali was rich and powerful. Its
cities included Timbuktu, which was a busy trading center where salt, horses, gold, and slaves were sold. However, the
kingdom of Mali was destroyed by Songhai in the 16th century.
Songhai was a kingdom situated east of Mali on the River Niger from the 14th century to the 16th century. Songhai reached
a peak of about 1500 AD. However, in 1591 they were defeated by the Moroccans and their kingdom broke up.
Another great north African state was Kanem-Bornu, located near Lake Chad. Kanem-Bornu rose to prominence in the 9th
century and it remained independent till the 19th century.
Meanwhile the Arabs also sailed down the east coast of Africa. Some of them settled there and they founded states such
as Mogadishu. They also settled on Zanzibar.
Inland some people in southern Africa formed organized kingdoms. About 1430 impressive stone buildings were erected
at Great Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile in the Middle Ages Ethiopia flourished. The famous church of St George was built about 1200.
Africa is home to the world’s earliest known use of measuring and calculation, confirming the continent as the birthplace
of both basic and advanced mathematics. Thousands of years ago, Africans were using numerals, algebra and geometry
in daily life. This knowledge spread throughout the entire world after a series of migrations out of Africa, beginning around
30,000 BC, and later following a series of invasions of Africa by Europeans and Asians.
Measuring Bone (35,000 BC)
The oldest mathematical instrument is the Lebombo bone, a baboon fibula used as a measuring device and so named for
its location of discovery in the Lebombo mountains of Swaziland. The device is at least 35,000 years old. Judging from its
29 distinct markings, it could have been used to either track menstrual or lunar cycles merely as a measuring stick.
It is rather interesting to note the significance of the 29 markings (roughly the same number as lunar cycle, i.e., 29.531
days) on the baboon fibula because it is the oldest indication that the baboon, a primate indigenous to Africa, was
symbolically linked to Khonsu, who was also associated with time. The Kemetic god, Djehuty ( “Tehuti” or Toth”), was later
depicted as a baboon ( also an ibis), and is
usually associated with the moon, math,
writing, and science. Use of baboon bones
as mathematical devices has been
continuous throughout all of Africa,
suggesting African always held the
baboon as sacred and associated with the
moon, math, and time.
Ishango Bone ( 20,000 BC)
The world’s oldest evidence of advanced mathematics was also a baboon fibula that was discovers in present-day
Democratic Republic of Congo, and dates to at least 20,000 BC. The bone is now housed in the Museum of Natural Sciences
in Brussels. The Ishango bone is not merely a measuring device or tally stick as some people erroneously suggest. The
bone’s inscriptions are clearly separated into clusters of markings that represent various quantities. When the markings
are counted, they are all odd numbers with the left column containing all prime numbers between 10 and 20, and the
right column containing added and subtracted numbers. When both columns are calculated, they add up to 60 ( nearly
double the length of the lunar or menstrual cycle).
African communities have had varied ways of tracking and synchronizing time with their activities. Some ancient calendar
systems were lunar-stellar, meaning they interpreted the days and months of the year in relation to different moon and
star formations.

3. The Borana people of southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya had a lunar-stellar calendar of 354 days, with 12 months of
29.5 days each. The community identified and named six stars and constellations, for example, Basa (known as Sirius), Arb
Gaddu (known as Orion) and Algajima (known as Bellatrix). The first six months of the year referred to a point when the
new moon was sighted with a certain star or constellation. For example, the sixth month of the calendar was called Obora
Dikka, when Basa (Sirius) is sighted during the new moon. Evidence of this calendar system is said to be linked to the
archeological site, Namoratunga II, located near Lake Turkana in Kenya, and dated at 300 BC. The site has 19 basalt pillars
surrounded by stones in circular patterns, which are believed to be aligned to the constellations. This theory is however
under contention.
The Egyptian calendar was similar to the present-day calendar system, with 365 days in a year of 12 months. Their calendar
was, however, centered around the cycle of the Nile’s flooding. Temple priests would study the star Sepdet (known as
Sirius) to determine the exact dates of the floods.
The Igbo people of Nigeria developed their calendars based on market days. Their calendar system consisted of four
market days (Eke, Orie, Afor, and Nkwo) that formed a week (Izu), with seven weeks in a month. The Yoruba people of
Nigeria and Benin also had four days in a week, with each day dedicated to an Orisha (deity). The traditional Yoruba
calendar had 91 weeks in a year.
Egypt was home to one of the most
advanced civilizations of the ancient world,
lasting from around 3100 BCE to 30 BCE,
when it was conquered by the Romans.
Protected from invaders by deserts, and fed
by fertile farmland on the banks of the Nile,
the Egyptian civilization survived for
thousands of years with few major changes.
The Ancient Egyptians left behind many clues
about their way of life, from giant temples
and pyramids to statues, paintings,
mummies, and picture writing called
hieroglyphics.

4. Egypt is surrounded by desert, so the Ancient Egyptians relied on the
River Nile to provide fertile land for farming. Every year, the river
floods, covering the fields along its banks with water. The floods were
down rich soil from the hills to the south. Ancient Egyptian farmers
built ditches and low walls to trap the mud and water, giving them
fertile soil to grow such as wheat, barley, and vegetables. The Whole
kingdom depended on the Nile floods. In dry years, many people
would starve.
Reading and writing were important skills in Ancient Egypt, and were
only learned by important and powerful people. Priests and scribes
(record-keepers) held high positions in society and often helped
pharaohs to make new laws. The Egyptians kept detailed records of
everything from food stores to trade, land ownership, victories in
battle, and religious ceremonies. These records tell us a lot about
how they lived their lives.
The Ancient Egyptians worshipped thousands of different gods and
goddesses, which were often shown as humans with animal features.
The gods controlled everything from the movement of the Sun across
the sky to the flooding of the River Nile, the afterlife, and childbirth.
Each city and village has a special patron (or guardian) god or goddess.
Different gods and goddesses were thought to be more powerful at
different times as Egyptian customs changes. Some gods took on
completely different forms over the centuries.
Around 2,000 different gods and goddesses were worshipped in
Ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egypt was rules by the pharaohs, powerful kings and
queens who were worshipped as gods on earth. The pharaohs
were rich and powerful, but they had many responsibilities.
They led Egypt’s armies into battle, and they were also thought
to control the flooding of the River Nile, which was essential
for growing the kingdom’s food. If disaster or famine struck,
the pharaoh had to beg the other gods for assistance =, and
might be blamed by the people if the situation did not
improve.
Pharaohs wore a cobra symbol on their crowns, which was believed to spit fire at the pharaoh’s enemies.

5. The Ancient Egyptian built huge temples as house for
their gods and goddesses. They were designed to
improve to be impressive buildings, with massive stone
walls and rows of columns carved with statues, images,
and hieroglyphs (picture writing). Ordinary people
could only enter the outer courtyard of the temple.
Inside were dark rooms where priests performed
sacred rituals to honor the gods and ask for their
blessings. The Karnak temple complex, shown here, is one of the biggest Egyptian temples still standing today. It was built
to honor Amun-Ra, the chief of the Egyptian gods. More than 80,000 people worked in the temples at Karnak, as servants,
guards, and priests.
Deep beneath the rock of the Egyptian mountains lie
incredible tombs, carved out to house dead pharaohs and
their treasures. Instead of pyramids, later Egyptian rulers
were buried underground in rooms decorated with
carvings and paintings and filled with valuable objects.
The largest group of these tombs can be found in the
Valley of the Kings, near the great Egyptian city of Thebes.
More than 60 tombs have been discovered so far, and the
nearby Valley of the Queens contains more than 70 tombs
of queens and princesses.
Even though they were hidden underground, many of the
tombs were broken into and robbed over the centuries.
The Ancient Egyptians believed that, if your body rotted or
was damaged after you died, your spirit would suffer in the
afterlife 9 the world of the dead). To make sure their souls
were safe, rich Egyptians arranged for their bodies to be
preserved after death. These preserved bodies called
mummies, and some are still intact to this day. The
mummies of the pharaohs were buried in rich coffins,
often surrounded by gold and jewels.
The inners coffin of Tutankhamun is made of solid gold
weighing 296lb (110 kg). That’s more than a grown man.

6. The most famous monuments of Ancient Egypt are the pyramids, which have fascinated people for thousands of years.
These massive stone structures were built as the tombs of pharaohs and members of their families. These are more than
80 pyramids scattered across Egypt, but the most famous are found at Giza on the north of Egypt. This group of six
pyramids includes some of the largest and best preserved examples.
Archaeologist found no mummies in the pyramids of Giza. They had all been stolen by grave robbers many centuries
ago.
The pyramids were made by stacking up huge blocks of limestone, which were quarried nearby. The builders laid roughly
shaped in horizontal patterns, then used mortar (a form of cement) to hold them together and fill any gaps in between
them. The outsides of the pyramids were covered in smooth blocks of high-quality limestone, brought in from special
quarries farther away. The people who built the pyramids made huge ramps out of soil and rubble so they could drag
the heavy blocks up to the top of the structure.
The great pyramid weighs 5.7 million tons, or as much as 16 Empire State buildings.
This is the largest
pyramid ever built. It is
also known as the
Pyramid of Khufu, the
pharaoh who was buried
inside. It is 482ft(147m)
tall and contains about
2,300,000 blocks of
limestone, each weighing
an average of 2.7 tons (
2.5 tonnes). It was
finished around 2566
BCE.

7. The stone at the top of the pyramid, called
the capstone, may have been covered in
gold so it shone in the sunlight
A tall passageway 26ft ( 8m) high and
154ft(47 m) long leads to the door of
the burial chamber.
An entranceway on the outside
of the pyramid was hidden
with stone blocks after the
pharaoh was buried inside.
Secret passages lead to another chamber cut
into the rock underneath the pyramid. It is
100ft 930m) below ground level and may have
been intended as the pharaoh’s burial
chamber, before he decided to be buried
higher up instead.
Rough blocks of dark limestone made up
most of the pyramid. They were covered in
a layer of smooth, white limestone blocks
to make the outside more impressive.
Building the Pyramids
The Pyramids are huge structures made of millions of
tonnes of stone, and yet the Ancient Egyptians built
them thousands of years before the invention of
modern machinery. Every block was cut and shaped by
hand using simple tools made of stone, wood, and
bronze. The blocks were lifted into place using simple
but powerful machines, such as ramps, rollers, and
levers. Even with their help, tens of thousands of
people worked for many years to complete each
pyramid.
The blocks used to build the Great Pyramid each
weighed 2.5 tonnes (2.75 tons) on average.
Only the pharaoh’s sarcophagus ( coffin)
still stands in the chamber. Thieves broke
in and stole the mummy and all its
treasures many centuries ago.

8. The giant statue of the Great Sphinx was built more than
4,500 years ago, to guard the pyramid of Khafre at Giza. It
has the head of a pharaoh and the body of a lion. The Great
Sphinx was carved out of a huge outcrop of limestone that
sticks up above the desert floor. It is the largest free-
standing sculpture to survive from ancient times.
The Great Sphinx is 66ft (20 m) tall, about the height of one
and a half buses stood on end.
The Ancient Egyptian believed that, when a
person died, their soul went on a dangerous
journey to another world. At the end of its
journey the soul was judged by the gods. The
god Anubis would weigh the dead person’s
heart to measure how good they had been in
life. Good people were rewarded with a happy
life, but bad people had the head of a crocodile,
the chest of a lion, and the body of a
hippopotamus.
The Ancient Egyptians believed that souls were made up of five different parts.
The River Nile was the main highway of Ancient Egypt. Boats were used to carry everything from grain and cattle to
coffins and building blocks. The earliest boats were moved using oars, and were made from bundles of papyrus reeds
tied tightly together. By 3000 BCE, the Egyptians were using
boats made of wood, with sails to move them around.
The Egyptians believed the Sun traveled across the sky in a
boat made of papyrus reeds.
Nile River, Arabic Baḥr Al-Nīl or Nahr Al-Nīl, the longest river in
the world, called the father of African rivers. It rises south of
the Equator and flows northward through
northeastern Africa to drain into the Mediterranean Sea. It
has a length of about 4,132 miles (6,650 kilometres)
and drains an area estimated at 1,293,000 square miles
(3,349,000 square kilometres). Its basin includes parts
of Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Sudan, and
the cultivated part of Egypt. Its most distant source is
the Kagera River in Burundi.

9. The Ancient Egyptians fought many wars with neighboring
empires. They fought off invaders such as the Hittites, powerful
tribe from the Eastern Mediterranean. And they invaded
neighboring lands such as Nubia to the south, wining new
territory. Early on, warriors were only recruited in time of war
and were not always well trained. In later years the pharaohs
kept a professional army of spearman, archers, and charioteers
to show the world their power.
From inventing our modern calendar, to inventing writing, to creating surgical instruments similar to those used today,
the ancient Egyptians were truly masters of invention.
In antiquity, ancient civilizations arose around rivers: The Nile River in Egypt, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in
Mesopotamia, the Indus River in India and the Yellow River in China.
While later civilizations, such as the Greeks, could learn from them, these ancient civilizations had to invent everything
for themselves.
The ancient Egyptians would come to invent mathematics, geometry,
surveying, metallurgy, astronomy, accounting, writing, paper, medicine, the
ramp, the lever, the plow, and mills for grinding grain.
Around 3000 BC, the Egyptians discovered that by mixing a small amount of tin
ore in with copper ore, they could make bronze.
Bronze is harder and more durable than other metals of that time, and this
archeological period became known as the Bronze Age. Bronze tools, weapons,
armor, building materials, and decorative items have been found.
The ancient Egyptians were among the first
groups of people to write and to keep
records. The earliest form of Egyptian
writing was hieroglyphics, which combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic
elements, and had a total of some 1,000 distinct characters.
Later, hieratic and demotic Egyptian scripts were derived from hieroglyphics, as were
the Greek and Aramaic scripts. This makes Egyptian hieroglyphics the ancestor of
most scripts in use today.

10. The ancient Egyptians
turned the pith of
the Cyperus papyrus plant,
which is found throughout
the Mediterranean region,
into sheets which could be
rolled into scrolls. The
earliest evidence of
papyrus was unearthed in
2012 at Wadi al-Jarf, an
ancient Egyptian harbor
located on the Red Sea
coast, and dates to 2560 – 2550 BC. The papyrus rolls found there describe the last years of the building
of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Having papyrus to write on would have been of no use without the invention of ink. The ancient Egyptians mixed vegetable
gum, soot and bee's wax to make a black ink. Eventually, they replaced the soot with other materials, such as red ochre,
to create various colors of ink.
The only known ancient Egyptian library to survive to this
day is the Tebtunis Temple Library, which is housed at the
University of California, Berkeley, and contains the
famous crocodile mummy texts.
These forty-five private documents date from the first half
of the 1st century BC and were found in five crocodile
mummies that had been buried next to each other.
The first ox-drawn plows appeared in Egypt as early as
2500 B.C. They were made of bronze, which easily scored
the earth into furrows. Workers with hoes then broke up
the clumps of soil and sowed the rows with seed. Along
the fertile banks of the Nile River, the ancient Egyptians
grew wheat and various vegetables. The sickle with its
curved blade was used for cutting and harvesting grains,
such as wheat and barley.

11. The Egyptians pioneered the use of canals and
irrigation channels to direct water from the Nile
River to farm fields that were distant from the
river. They built gates into the canals so that they
could control the flow of water, and they built
reservoirs to hold water supplies in case of
drought.
The ancient Egyptians used water wheels, which
worked an invention of theirs called a shadoof. It was comprised of a long pole with a bucket on one end and a weight on
the other.
The buckets were dropped into the Nile, filled with water, and raised using water wheels. Then, oxen swung the pole so
that the water could be emptied into canals that were used to irrigate the crops.
The Egyptians devised their highly accurate solar
calendar by recording the yearly reappearance of
the star Sirius (the Dog Star) in the eastern sky.
When Sirius rose, it coincided with the yearly
flooding of the Nile River.
The Egyptian calendar contained 365 days, divided
into 12 months. Each month had 30 days, and there
were an additional five festival days at the end of
each year.
However, earth's solar year is actually 365.25 days long,
which today we account for with Leap Year. Gradually, the
Egyptian calendar became incorrect, but this problem was
solved by Ptolemy III whose Ptolemaic Calendar added one
day to the 365 days every four years.
The Egyptians used their famous obelisks as sundials, by observing
how shadows cast by the obelisk moved around them during the
course of the day. From this, the ancient Egyptians were able to
determine the longest and shortest days of the year.

12. An inscription dating to the 16th century BC and found in the tomb of a court official named Amenemhet, shows a water
clock. This clock was made from a stone vessel which had a tiny hole in its bottom.
Water dripped through this hole at a constant rate, and the passage of hours could be determined from marks placed on
a vessel collecting the water. Priests at the Temple of Karnak used a water clock at night to determine the time to
perform various religious rites.
A corbeled arch is a construction method that uses corbeling to span a space or a void in a structure.
Corbelling involves offsetting successive rows of stone or brick so that they project towards the
archway's center, eventually meeting at the apex of the archway. Corbeled
arches weren't as efficient as "true" arches, which better support all of a
structure's tensile stresses by compression
By circa 1500 BC, Egyptian artisans were making multi-colored glass ingots and vessels.
Glass makers shaped the body of a vessel around the core of a ceramic-like material
by winding hot colored glass filaments around the core.
They then added handles and a rim, let the vessel cool, and removed the core. Most early
core-formed vessels were small flasks for holding perfumed oil, so in essence, they were the
world's first perfume bottles.
When you look at pictures of the opening of King Tutankhamun's
tomb by Howard Carter in 1923, you see the ancient king was buried
with lots of furniture. The ancient Egyptians built beds, tables, and
stools. While early forms of tables were used to store items above
the ground, later designs were used for eating off of and to play
games. The game Senet, one of the oldest known board games, was
mentioned in an ancient Egyptian hieroglyph dating from 3100 BC

13. The Edwin Smith
Papyrus, dating to 1600
BC, is the oldest known
surgical treatise. It
describes 48 surgical
cases of injuries,
fractures, wounds,
dislocations, and
tumors, and details the
type of the injury,
examination of the
patient, diagnosis,
prognosis, and
treatment. Injuries were to the head, neck, shoulders, breast, and chest.
The papyrus includes a list of the instruments used during those surgeries, i nstructions for the suturing wounds, and
descriptions of using swabs, bandages, adhesive plasters, and cauterizing.
Written in black ink, with explanations written in red ink, the papyrus even contains a section on gynecology and one on
cosmetics, along with five prescriptions. The Cairo Museum contains a collection of surgical instruments, including
scalpels, scissors, copper needles, forceps, spoons, lancets, hooks, probes, and pincers.
The ancient Egyptians invented toothpaste, with one
recipe containing powdered of ox hooves, ashes, burnt
eggshells, and pumice. Another, probably better-
tasting recipe, contained rock salt, mint, dried iris
flower and grains of pepper.
This latter recipe came along with an "advertisement"
that promised a "powder for white and perfect teeth."
This could have come out of any 21st Century
advertisement.
Ancient Egyptian mathematics was the
poetry of logical ideas, the music of
reason and one of the main key
components that led to the creation of
the ancient world’s most advanced
civilizations.
They considered the study of
mathematics much like the Nile
river begins in minuteness but ends in
magnificence. They used it to help
them function as a society and solve
real-world problems.
According to the great historian,
Herodotus admitted the greek owned much to the Egyptians in the fields of arithmetic and astronomy and geometry
famous greek scholars like Plato, Euclid, Eudoxus and Pythagoras, and Thales were learned in the Nile valley temples.

14. History & Facts About Ancient Egyptian Mathematics
It was developed from 3000 to 300 BC from the old kingdom to the Hellenistic era, everything started with the introduction
of writing which gave rise to the scribes who used their holy gift to apply the basics of sophisticated mathematics in record
keeping, tax accounting, record the lunar phases patterns to devise a calendar, measuring the land.
Some surviving papyrus like the Moscow papyrus of the 19th century and the Rhind Papyrus of the 17th BC were able to
show the ancient Egyptians understanding of the numeral system which involved multiplication and fractions and the
concepts of geometry such as determining the surface area, the volume of 3D shapes which was the cornerstone of
architectural engineering and algebra.
The priests and priestesses were the ones who used mathematics and in charge of workers, surveyors, engineers, tax
collectors, shop keepers, and masons while a much advance form of mathematics was used by the ones associated with
the building-related jobs.
Ancient Egyptian Mathematics System
The evidence of the usages of mathematics can be tracked to the ivory labels at Abydos which were inscribed with
numbers and used as tags for grave goods.
The Narmer mace head depicts an offering of 400,000 oxen, 1,422,000 goats, and 120,000 prisoners and in the old
kingdom which prove the usage of a 10 number decimal system.
The ancient Egyptians used written numbers as they used a stroke for units, a heel-bone symbol for tens, a coil of rope for
hundreds, a lotus plant for thousands which were additive but as for tens of thousands of even a million require
hieroglyphics or as a million needed just one character while a million minus one required fifty-four character.
They had no concept of zero as it was discovered by the Indians and adopted by the Arab then reaching to the European
civilization after 800 AD.
The ancient Egyptians were able to solve linear equations and quadratic equations which gave them the ability to estimate
volumes of shapes and solids.
They used multiplication by a process of repeated doubling of the number to be multiplied and choosing which of the
doubling to add together, the same principles used in modern-day computers algorisms.
With the rise of trade, many practical problems surrounding trade occurred which led to the development of notation for
fractions.
Geometry in Ancient Egypt
The ancient Egyptians exiled in the field of Geometry as mentioned in the papyrus of Rhind and Moscow by the use of
brute force.
They know how to compute areas of several volumes of cylinders, rectangular and pyramids and other geometric shapes
like polygon, circles
Ancient Egyptian Mathematics Papyrus
The Rhind papyrus was written in 1650 BC and discovered in the 19th century and is filled with many mathematical
problems and solutions. It showcases a section on fractions where the Egyptians preferred to reduce all fractions to unit
fractions like 1/4, 1/3, and 1/9. They wrote 3/4 as 1/2+1/4 and 4/5 as 1/2+1/4+1/20.
The Moscow Papyrus that dates to 1850 BC contains a method on how to calculate the volume of a truncated pyramid
and the surface area of half a sphere; it also shows that the Egyptians used the value of Pi at 3.16 which is very close to
our modern number of 3.14. it shows their standard of measurement was the cubit around 52.3 cm, these techniques
were used in constructing the pyramids and other monuments all over Egypt.
The Ancient Egyptians were truly gifted in the art of mathematics as it shows in the majestic constructions all over the is
a great country in the enchanting cities of Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan, so get a better view of Egypt by boarding a Nile
cruise to these incredible destinations.
The introduction of writing in Egypt in the predynastic period (c. 3000 BCE) brought with it the formation of a special class
of literate professionals, the scribes. By virtue of their writing skills, the scribes took on all the duties of a civil service:
record keeping, tax accounting, the management of public works (building projects and the like), even the prosecution of
war through overseeing military supplies and payrolls. Young men enrolled in scribal schools to learn the essentials of the
trade, which included not only reading and writing but also the basics of mathematics.
What is known of Egyptian mathematics tallies well with the tests posed by the scribe Hori. The information comes
primarily from two long papyrus documents that once served as textbooks within scribal schools. The Rhind papyrus (in
the British Museum) is a copy made in the 17th century BCE of a text two centuries older still. In it is found a long table of
fractional parts to help with division, followed by the solutions of 84 specific problems in arithmetic and geometry.
The Golenishchev papyrus (in the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts), dating from the 19th century BCE, presents 25 problems
of a similar type. These problems reflect well the functions the scribes would perform, for they deal with how to distribute
beer and bread as wages, for example, and how to measure the areas of fields as well as the volumes of pyramids and
other solids

15. The Egyptians, like the Romans after
them, expressed numbers according
to a decimal scheme, using separate
symbols for 1, 10, 100, 1,000, and so
on; each symbol appeared in the
expression for a number as many
times as the value it represented
occurred in the number itself. For
example, stood for 24. This
rather cumbersome notation was
used within the hieroglyphic
writing found in stone inscriptions and other formal texts, but in the papyrus documents the scribes employed a more
convenient abbreviated script, called hieratic writing, where, for example, 24 was written .
The Flooding of the Nile
The Ancient Egyptians made many great advances in science and contributions to the store of human knowledge,
especially in medicine and alchemy. The Egyptians also contributed to ancient astronomy and, as with the Mesopotamians,
their work was based upon agriculture and predicting the seasons.
The annual flooding of the Nile was the foundation of Egyptian
civilization and agriculture, so predicting this occurrence with accuracy
was the driving force behind the development of Egyptian astronomy.
Once again, their studies of the heavens became intertwined with
religion, esoterica and the priesthood.
Early Egyptian Astronomy
The history of Egyptian astronomy begins in the depths of prehistory and
the discovery of stone circles at Nabta Playa, dating from the 5th
Millennium BC, show that the Egyptians had already developed a
calendar. The stone circle shows that they were accomplished at marking
time and, it can be assumed, predicting the coming of the floods. They
also developed a system of constellations that appear to be of native origin and independent from the work of
the Greeks and the Mesopotamians.
The Egyptians were fully aware that the year was about 365 days, and divided it into 12 months of 30 days, with five
ceremonials, intercalary days, called the Epagomenal days, added. This calendar lost one day every four years, and they
made little attempt to correct this. Instead, they developed another calendar based around the star Sirius, which also
consisted of 365 days but which included the extra quarter day. Strangely, they also kept a 360 day ceremonial calendar,
running concurrently with the others, and these calendars coincided every 1461 years, which was seen as a time of great
celebration and the start of a new age.
Egyptian astronomers used sundials to tell the time, dividing the days into 24 hours, although the length of these hours
was not fixed, ensuring that day and night both consisted of twelve hours, whatever the time of year. At night, they divided
the night sky into 36 groups of stars, called Decans, which could be used to tell the time.
There is little doubt that the great Egyptian buildings were based upon the stars; the Great Pyramid is aligned with the
cardinal points, and many temples are aligned along the axis of the rising midwinter sun, signifying to Egyptians that they
should begin to prepare for planting in the spring. The Great Pyramid of Giza is filled with astronomical significance, based
largely upon religious beliefs but with its roots in astrological phenomena. Within the Great Pyramids are southern facing
airshafts that point to the star Sirius, with its significance in marking the start of the Egyptian year, and to Orion, associated
with death and rebirth, another recurring theme in Egyptian mythology. In addition, the north-facing air shafts point to
the circumpolar stars, called ‘The Immortals’ by Egyptians, because they never set.

16. There are other theories concerning the pyramids, namely that they were located to reflect the constellation Orion, with
the three pyramids at Giza representing the belt of Orion. As with the Neolithic astronomy, this is largely conjectural and
all that we can safely say is that the Egyptians built their monuments to reflect the cardinal directions and important times
of year.
This trend continued in the Valley of the Kings, where Rameses II built his huge Temple of Abu Simbel to ensure that
sunlight only penetrated the inner sanctum on the 20th of October and the 20th of February, with one of these days
believed to be the anniversary of his coronation.
Of course, when looking at history, ancient techniques do not begin and end at certain points and there is always a degree
of overlap. Whilst Egyptian civilization declined, it became absorbed by the Greek and Roman cultures and the city of
Alexandria became one of the most important centers of astronomy, the birthplace of the great Ptolemy.
As with many ancient cultures, the Egyptian astronomy began with recording the time of year for agricultural periods, and
may well have served a navigational purpose, a common practice in the desert. These observations became imbued with
religious significance and became incorporated into their architecture.
The Egyptians built their monuments pointing in the cardinal directions and used them to reflect important celestial
occurrences revealing the time of year. They also developed a sophisticated calendar, albeit with a lot of complexity and
the need to run three separate calendars. This may seem strange to us, but the idea of multiple calendars is a solution
that the Mayans arrived at independently. In fact, we use multiple calendars, with the Islamic world maintaining a lunar
calendar rather than the solar calendar of the Western world, and Orthodox Christian Churches use the Julian calendar to
decide ceremonial dates.
Of course, the astronomy and architecture of the Egyptians has attracted many wild theories about how the Egyptians
incorporated the weight and the circumference of the Earth into the Great Pyramid, or that they are the descendants of
fugitives from Atlantis. These are conjectural and cannot be taken seriously without a little proof. Despite this, we can say
that Egyptian astronomy was extremely sophisticated and many of their ideas became the foundation of our own
stargazing and cosmology.
 In ancient Egypt, magic, herbs, and
spells intertwine and were thought to
have curative powers.
 The Ebers Papyrus is the oldest
medical text in existence and contains
hundreds of remedies to the patients’
illnesses.
 The Egyptians believed that physical
sickness was intertwined with the
spiritual realm: if one was not feeling
well, it meant that they had spiritual
blockages or that evil spirits were
possessing the sick person.
Ancient Egyptian civilizations believed that
physical wellness was connected to spiritual
health. Each time the body manifested
discomfort or diseases, doctors were convinced that spirits were clogging and blocking the body’s channels. In order to
solve their problems, doctors (or healers) advised both prayers and natural remedies to their patients. Therefore, it is no
surprise to discover that medical professions were carried out by priests.
The Ancient Egyptian’s belief in gods, demons, and spirits, blurred the lines between magic and medical scientific
detachment. In fact, people believed that illnesses appeared due to the gods’ or the evil spirits’ anger: speaking their
enemy’s language of magic and charms could alleviate their patients from pain. For instance, if one was bitten by a
Scorpion, the solution consisted in offering prayers to Serket; whereas a pregnant woman would have prayed to Bes,
‘goddess of magic and medicine’ (Murrell 2018). In essence, Ancient Egyptian civilizations believed that they were inflicted
with diseases and pain because they had to learn a life lesson or because they had to redeem their sins.

17. Before initiating treatment, the doctors recited an incantation and prayed the
gods to assist the patient’s healing. The doctors/priests also employed
talismans in their rituals, and if patients were cured it was thanks to the
placebo effect that such procedures played on the psyche and body.
Overall, it can be claimed that ancient Egyptian medicine is grounded in
mysticism and herbology.
Since the ancient Egyptians had their own alphabetical and numerical system,
they started recording their medical findings, and they compiled the Ebers
Papyrus, which today is the most ancient text concerning medical practice.
The book was written around 1500 BCE, yet, it contains over seven-hundred
remedies, charms and incantations that may date back to 3400 BCE.
The work offers solutions to various conditions concerning dentistry, mental
illnesses, the heart, gynaecological issues, pregnancy, dermatology, eyesight,
and surgery.
Medical texts were written on papyrus (the Ebers Papyrus is around twenty
metres long), and were kept in the temple Per-Ankh (i.e. ‘House of Life’) (Mark
2017). Apart from the Ebers Papyrus, other important medical texts were The
Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus (written in 1800 BCE), which encloses
information on pregnancy and contraception methods; The London Medical
Papyrus (written between 1782-1570 BCE), deals with issues regarding ‘eyes,
skin, burns, and pregnancy’; The Edwin Smith Papyrus, which in the year 1600 BCE was concerned with surgery; The Berlin
Medical Papyrus, which treated topics concerning contraception, fertility, and methods to know whether one is pregnant
or not; The Hearst Medical Papyrus offered information on urinary and digestive issues; The Chester Beatty Medical
Papyrus (written around 1200 BCE) dealt with rectal issues and prescribed cannabis to patients suffering from cancer
(Mark 2017).
Medical Practices
In ancient Egypt there existed three types of medical practitioners: priests, magicians (who executed a number of spells
and charms in order to get rid of evil spirits), and healers called swnw who employed medications when curing their
patients (Barr 2014).
Although the ancient Egyptian civilization’s knowledge in regards to anatomy was not highly developed, they nonetheless
had reached certain important understandings and discoveries: in fact, they knew that that the heart pumped blood
through the veins and arteries, therefore providing blood to the body. They were also aware that the liver could be
infected and could suffer diseases, however, they did not know what caused them.
On the other hand, doctors believed that a women’s uterus floated within the body. Moreover, if a woman was witnessing
vaginal discharge, doctors prescribed the following: ‘You should treat it with a measure of carob fruit, a measure of pellets,
1 hin of cow milk. Boil, cool, mix together, drink on 4 mornings. (Mark 2017; citing Column I.8-12). Whereas if the pain
was experienced in the lower abdomen, then ‘fumigation of the womb’ (i.e. purifying with incense or other fumes) was
advised (Mark 2017).
But how could a doctor predict a woman’s pregnancy? The method seems quite absurd today: however, an onion was
placed the vaginal canal and if the next morning the woman’s breath presented an onion smell, then it meant she was
expecting a child. Yet, this was not the only method: in fact, in some instances emmer and barely were ‘doused with a
woman’s urine; and if the plants flourished’ it signified pregnancy: if emmer was the first of the two plants to sprout, then
the child would be female; if barely sprouted first, the child would be male (Mark 2017).
In order to cure simple headaches, or more complicated issues such as epilepsy, abscesses and blood clots, ancient
Egyptian civilizations employed harsh measures such as trepanation, which consists in drilling a hole in the skull in order
to relieve pressure and perform simple operations. Such a technique was also used as a method to exorcise patients from
evil spirits and in an attempt to relieve mental illnesses.
In other instances, if patients were suffering from headaches, medical practitioners would advise to take ‘an elixir
containing human flesh, blood or bone’, or ‘mummy powder’, which supposedly had ‘magical properties’ (Andrews 2014).
In fact, by ingesting the remains of a corpse, the patient believed she was also ingesting part of their spirit and their
qualities, thus obtaining a higher rate of ‘vitality and wellbeing’ (Andrews 2014). Such macabre practices belong to a
branch of medicine called ‘corpse medicine’ which was used for hundreds of years, up to the XVII century (in fact, the king
of England Charles II, drank ‘a restorative brew made from crumbled human skull and alcohol’) (Andres 2014). In this view,
eating human fat would relieve the patients from muscle aches and ingesting skull would relieve migraines and headaches.

18. On the other hand, for ancient Egyptian civilizations, the heart was the ‘centre of the body, spirit, and soul’ (Barr 2017).
Wounds
During the ancient Egyptian times’ wounds were taken care of by applying a concoction of ‘honey, willow leaves, acacia
seeds, and other herbs’, whereas bleeding was stopped with ‘raw meat, sawdust, animal fat, or dung’ (Health and Fitness
History).
Surgical procedures were carried out with ‘forceps, bone saws, [and] scalpels’ (Health and Fitness History 2017).
Ingredients in Egyptian Medicine
Doctors prescribed specific foods since they exhibited curative properties for certain diseases. For instance, some of the
most popular ingredients employed by the healers were: aloe, acacia seeds and leaves, cannabis, castor oil, cedar oil,
cilantro, dates, fish, frankincense, garlic, goose fat, honey, juniper, Mandrake, pomegranate juice and root, thyme, and
willow leaves (Health and Fitness History 2017).
However, also more macabre ingredients were often prescribed: for instance ‘ Lizard blood, dead mice, mud and moldy
bread were all used as topical ointments and dressings, and women were sometimes dosed with horse saliva as a cure for
an impaired libido’ (Andrews 2014).
Medicines were often ‘mixed with beer, wine, or honey’ which were thought to provide the patients with medical benefits.
In fact, beer was considered as the gods’ gift to humanity since it contributed to one’s ‘health and enjoyment’ (Mark 2017).
The protectors of beer were the female divinities Tenenet and Hathor, and the male god Set. Although Set is considered
the God of chaos, violence, upheavals, storms, and had murdered his own brother Osiris, he was nonetheless a powerful
god. In fact, the pharaoh of Egypt Seti I, had particularly honoured the God, and an incantation was created in order to
cure unknown illnesses through the use of beer. The spell is recited in the following way: ‘There is no restraining Set. Let
him carry out his desire to capture a heart in that name ‘beer’ of his – To confuse a heart, and to capture the heart of an
enemy’ (Mark 2017; citing Roberts, 98).
Although today it is well known that Mercury is a poisonous substance, during the ancient Egyptian period it was
considered a potent liquid that could increase one’s lifespan: in fact, it was claimed that by ingesting Mercury one would
‘gain eternal life and the ability to walk on water’ (Andrews 2014). Such a practice was adopted by the Chinese Emperor
Quin She Huang, who subsequently died due to poisoning.
The Demotic Magical Papyrus is entirely dedicated to spell, charms, and rituals: all the material contained in such book
borders the mystical and the occult. Some of the papyrus’ incantations attempted to bring the dead back to life.
Medicine and Healing through Deities
Nefertem was the god of aromatherapy and perfumes. His name derives from ancient Egyptian ‘nfr-tm’ which signifies
‘perfect, without any equals’. According to tradition, Nefertem had donated to Ra (God of immortality) a lotus flower,
which symbolised birth and regeneration.
Bes, Tueret, Hetet, Imhotep and Neith were the protectors of pregnant women and childbirth.