Chapter 4 Aspects of Zero in Ancient Egypt (original) (raw)

Abstract

Investigating zero in ancient Egypt raises different questions and covers about 3,000 years of cultural history. Starting with the Egyptian language (which was easily able to express the idea of non-existence), I first provide some general information about Egyptian number writing, followed by multiplicative number writing and then a critical assessment of the traditional opinion that the Egyptian word nfr was ‘zero’. After that are considered, in turn, Egyptian expressions for ‘nothingness’ and missing objects (from the third millennium BCE), the absence of entries in bookkeeping (from the second millennium BCE), the absence of numbers and placeholder signs (from the second half of the first millennium BCE). Of particular importance was iwty/iwṱ which was incorporated into Greek (in the first century CE) and finally into Arabic (in the eleventh century) astronomical texts in sexagesimal notations.

The Egyptians did not understand zero as a numerical value. They did not need it for expressing any number and they did not calculate using zero. The question is finally raised as to which criteria one should accept as a firm and definite proof for the existence of the concept of zero as a numerical/mathematical value in a culture, not only the Egyptian.