Dave L Wrote:
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> Play and research have always been associated.
>
> I think it was Aristotle in Metaphysics who said:
> "The arts of geometry first developed in Egypt,
> for there the priestly class was allowed to be at
> leisure"
>
> The Egyptians were the first pyramidiots.

I think that's important.

In the absents of any real documentary evidence for Egyptian mathematics prior to the Middle Kingdom scholars have argued for a long developmental period where all knowledge was passed down orally from adept to pupil. Since in Pre-dynastic times a decimal system existed, the slow development is thought to have extended over a period of about 1500 years ( 3600- 2040 BC)

Some Historians however are inclined to disagree by pointing out that long periods of slow development are not consistent with the "history of mathematics". Rather, they say, the emphasis should be on relatively short periods of rapid development where the practical methods of the common man are seized upon by an inquisitive and sometimes leisurely few for further inquiry. Furthermore, that if the newly acquired knowledge is not eventually returned to the source from whence it came, stagnation is likely to result, at worst deterioration or even complete loss.

An example of this rapid development, deterioration and subsequent loss might be seen in the extraordinary Greek artifact known as the Antikythera geared object which was first brought to light in 1900 and then dated to the first century BC.

It seems that a solid body of arithmetic was used in Egypt from the first half of the 4th millennium at a time when it is believed that many of the ancient settlements along the Nile permanently linked with the vast trade networks of the Near East. But it is not from amongst the agriculturalists or traders that any superior strain of mathematics is likely to have evolved but rather from the powerful priesthoods which grew out of their affluence. Egyptian mathematics from the very earliest times appears to exist on two levels, one in everyday use, the other supported by an ever expanding and experimenting priesthood who from time to time would have found it advantageous to co-operate with king and state.

Graham Oaten

The great amount of labour involved in quarrying and transporting such a mass of masonry as even the casing, has always been a cause of astonishment - Sir Flinders Petrie.