Two letters from Otto Neugebauer to Thomas Eric Peet on ancient Egyptian mathematics

We describe two letters of 1926 from the historian of mathematics Otto Neugebauer to the Egyptologist Thomas Eric Peet (Griffith Institute Archive, Oxford: Peet MSS 4.9). The letters concern Neugebauer's study of certain parts of the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, as found in the doctoral disserta...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hollings, CD, Parkinson, RB
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2020
Description
Summary:We describe two letters of 1926 from the historian of mathematics Otto Neugebauer to the Egyptologist Thomas Eric Peet (Griffith Institute Archive, Oxford: Peet MSS 4.9). The letters concern Neugebauer's study of certain parts of the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, as found in the doctoral dissertation that he had completed in Göttingen that year, for which Peet's 1923 edition of the papyrus was a major source. In the letters, we see the young Neugebauer establishing himself within the wider Egyptological community. The letters open up a discussion of Peet's own work on ancient Egyptian mathematics.