ASIAN AND AFRICAN STUDIES, 13, 2004, 2, 134-140 THE SEKED: ON ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY Dušan Magdolen Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia In this article the ancient Egyptian terms expressing the slope of a pyramid and voyage of the sun god across the sky are discussed in context of ancient Egyptian mathematics, astronomy and religious iconography. The ancient Egyptians developed and used a special mathematical method for calculation of the slope of a pyramid. In hieroglyphic texts the slope appears in this form P J q . This word is transliterated as skdx and conventionally called seked. The word is a noun of masculine gender. As can be seen in its hi eroglyphic transcription, the first three signs give the phonetic consonant skele ton of the word. They are the uniliteral hieroglyph al sign (i), followed by the biliter- (kd) accompanied by the phonetic complement ^^(d). The biliteral sign kd of uncertain meaning belongs to category “Aa” of the Sign-list named “unclassified”.2 Nevertheless, in Gardiner's Sign-list, this sign is described as an instrument used by ancient Egyptian builders.3 The word ends with the sign representing the papyrus scroll used as determinative. The term skd appears in the mathematical papyri for solving the specific problems concerning the pyramids.4 As for its modem definition, Gillings says:5 1 R. O. Faulkner, A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford 1996, p. 250; R. Han- nig, Großes Handwörterbuch Ägyptisch-Deutsch, Mainz 1995, p. 772; A. Erman, H. Grapow, Wörterbuch der aegyptischen Sprache, Vol. IV, Leipzig 1930, p. 309. 2 A. H. Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, Oxford 19823, p. 543. 3 A. IT. Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, p. 543, sign Aa-28 and note 1. Perhaps, this sign may reflect the shape of an instrument originally used in some way in process of marking and checking the precise slope of a wall, or a pyramid core built up from stone blocks. 4 R. J. Gillings, Mathematics in the time of the pharaohs, New York 1982, pp. 185ff. 5 R. J. Gillings, Mathematics, p. 212. 134