of unit fractions. The Egyptians used some special notation for fractions such as , and and in some texts for , but other fractions were all written as unit fractions of the form or sums of such unit fractions. Scribes used tables to help them work with these fractions. The Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll for instance is a table of unit fractions which are expressed as sums of other unit fractions. The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus and some of the other texts contain tables. These tables allowed the scribes to rewrite any fraction of the form as a sum of unit fractions. During the New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BC) mathematical problems are mentioned in the literary Papyrus Anastasi I, and the Papyrus Wilbour from the time of Ramesses III records land measurements. In the workers village of Deir el-Medina several ostraca have been found that record volumes of dirt removed while quarrying the tombs. Sources Current understanding of ancient Egyptian mathematics is impeded by the paucity of available sources. The sources that do exist include the following texts (which are generally dated to the Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period): The Moscow Mathematical Papyrus The Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll The Lahun Mathematical Papyri The Berlin Papyrus 6619, written around 1800 BC The Akhmim Wooden Tablet The Reisner Papyrus, dated to the early Twelfth dynasty of Egypt and found in Nag el-Deir, the ancient town of Thinis The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus (RMP), dated from the Second Intermediate Period (c. 1650 BC), but its author, Ahmes, identifies it as a copy of a now lost Middle Kingdom papyrus. The RMP is the largest mathematical text. From the New Kingdom there are a handful of mathematical texts and inscriptions related to computations: The Papyrus Anastasi I, a literary text written as a (fictional) letter written by a scribe named Hori and addressed to a scribe named Amenemope. A segment of the letter describes several mathematical problems. Ostracon Senmut 153, a text written in hieratic Ostracon Turin 57170, a text written in hieratic Ostraca from Deir el-Medina contain computations. Ostracon IFAO 1206 for instance shows the calculation of volumes, presumably related to the quarrying of a tomb. Numerals Ancient Egyptian texts could be written in either hieroglyphs or in hieratic. In either representation the number system was always given in base 10. The number 1 was depicted by a simple stroke, the number 2 was