Page:The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, Volume I.pdf/17

 INTRODUCTION

The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus was found at Thebes in the ruins of a small building near the Ramesseum. It was purchased in 1858 by A. Henry Rhind and after his death came into the possession of the British Museum. It is a copy that was made by a scribe named Aꜥhmose and begins with a rather ambitious statement of what the author proposes to do. The date at which this copy was made is indicated in the old Egyptian method by the year of a certain pharaoh named ꜥA-user-Rêꜥ, who has been identified as one of the Hyksos dynasty, living approximately 1650 B.C. The scribe further says that it is in likeness to older writings, of the time of king Ne-maꜥet-Rêꜥ (Amenem-hêt III) who reigned from 1849 to 1801 B.C. The papyrus is written in hieratic and originally it was a single roll nearly 18 feet long and about 13 inches high, but it came to the British Museum broken apart, and with a number of fragments missing, the most important of which have been found in the possession of the New York Historical Society. A lithographic facsimile of the papyrus was published by the British Museum in 1898, but the photographs which I have reproduced in the second volume of this work represent it as it appears to-day. The fragments found in New York were brought over