Puzzle No. 99: When?

Around 1650 BCE the scribe Ahmes copied the document now known as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, stating that he was reproducing an older text that may date to roughly 2000 BCE during the Middle Kingdom. The most complete surviving source for ancient Egyptian mathematics, it contains some 84 to 87 problems with their solutions, covering multiplication and division, the handling of unit fractions, linear equations, and the calculation of areas and volumes, including practical geometry for grain stores and land. The papyrus reveals a sophisticated, problem-based mathematical tradition tied to administration, construction, and accounting, and includes an approximation of pi used in computing the area of a circle. Acquired by Alexander Henry Rhind in 1858 and now in the British Museum, it is a cornerstone for understanding the history of mathematics and demonstrates the practical numeracy underpinning Egypt's monumental building and bureaucratic record-keeping.

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