Mathematical bases of ancient Egyptian architecture and graphic art

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Gay Robins, Emory University; Charles C. Shute, University of Cambridge
• Language: English
• Date: 1985-05
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 1985 Published by Elsevier Inc.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): https://doi.org/10.1016/0315-0860(85)90002-3
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Historia Mathematica
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 2
• Start Page: 107
• End Page: 122
• Keywords: pylons; horizontal displacement; Egypt; royal cubit; pyramids; inclined plane surface; buildings; two-dimensional art; archaeology; obliquity
• Research Categories: Anthropology, Archaeology; Architecture

Abstract

In ancient Egyptian buildings, such as pyramids and pylons with inclined walls, the inclination was contrived to give a horizontal displacement measured in palms, half-palms or quarter-palms for a drop of one royal cubit of seven palms. The inclination of the edges between adjacent walls was not relevant to the design. Evidence is presented suggesting that in two-dimensional art the obliquity of slanting lines may have been determined by a similar system, but with a drop of six units instead of seven. After the introduction of the squared grid, obliquity was probably controlled by reference to grid intersections. There is no valid reason for supposing that the irrational numbers π and φ were implicated, except coincidentally, in the inclination of pyramids or in the obliquity of slanting lines.