This entry documents a meta economics context that formed one intellectual foundation of 2,000 BCE Egyptian fraction mathematics.

The Heqanakht Papers discuss two absentee landlords' family and estate production and profit concerns in four letters. Accounting for Private Estates and the Household in the 20th Century BC Middle Kingdom by Mahmoud Ezzamel appeared in the journal Abacus, Vol. 38, No. 2 (2002), pp.235-262. Ezzamel, an accountant, shows that absentee landlords relied on a money system that had been first built upon theoretical monetary units based in commodities and metals. Practical everyday measurements issued payments to workers and implemented other management controls within rational number remainders written to several classes of Egyptian fractions (for the first time). An abstract of Ezzamel's article follows: 2,000 BCE Accounting Article.

In contrast, outside of economics, the tradition of math historians, an interesting 2,000 BCE to 1500 BCE review of Babylonian contacts with Egyptian scribes has been published by Jens Hoyrup, noted Babylonian scholar.

In summary Hoyrup stresses several algorithmic aspects of the RMP, and the MMP. He fairly concludes that singular additive views of Middle Kingdom Egyptian arithmetic had been incorrectly reported for most of the 20th century. He went on to mention that the RMP 2/n table was built with theoretical considerations.

It should be noted that Hoyrup did not discuss all of the available Middle Kingdom (MK) mathematical texts. For example, Hoyrup omitted several theoretical methods contained in the EMLR, Akhmim Wooden Tablet (AWT), and the Kahun Papyrus (KP). Taken as a whole MK documents offer confirming information that several theoretical foundations of Egyptian mathematics contained abstract methods. Theoretical foundations include a multiple method, combined with a general use of LCMs (red auxiliary numbers) generally converting rational numbers to unit fraction series (EMLR); a hekat unity (64/64) allowed volume units to be exactly divided by rational numbers into quotients and remainders (AWT); and theoretical 2/n tables concisely converted rational numbers to exact unit fraction series (RMP, KP). The 2/n tables included the use of prime numbers to write its exact quotient and remainder answers. That is, several slices of Hoyrup's Egyptian mathematics only suggested the general use of algorithms, and a frequent use of singular false position. Scribal algorithms and false position methods may have been been overstated. In other words, algorithmic view fairly mentions Egyptian fraction remainders, and theoretical 2/n tables; however, omissions of theoretical methods reported in RMP quotients, and other MK texts, needs to be pointed out.

To agree with an aspect of Hoyrup's view, it is clear that prior to 2100 BCE, Old Kingdom (OK) Babylonians and Egyptians both used infinite series algorithms within cursive numeration systems. However, MK Egyptian scribes discontinued the OK infinite series numeration system (called Horus-Eye fractions) by stressing non-algorithmic methods to generally convert rational numbers into exact and concise Egyptian fraction series. In other words Hoyrup omitted conflicting Egyptian fraction points of view. Had Hoyrup reviewed economic issues and other conflicting topics he may have been able to weave his views into Egyptian non-algorithmic math tool kits and outlined several important discussions.

Yet, the meta role of economics in the ancient Egyptian culture does provide an important broader discussion. The topic fairly outlines a fundamental political and numerical context of Egyptian mathematics. Meta economics issues likely motivated and directed the replacement of OK rounded off infinite series unit measures with new finite unit measures. The MK scribes created new theoretical (exact) weights and measures systems units for use in several cultural applications. For example, the exacting MK units were used by absentee landlords to manage their estates, as well as paying the political 10 percent tax rate to Pharaoh. In other words, based on the Egyptian economy's acceptance of Egyptian fractions, the mathematics notation and its diverse rational number methods spread across Egypt and the ancient Near East.

In conclusion, meta economic considerations improved MK weights and measures units likely first understood and applied by absentee landlords. The new MK units formed an intellectual building block of Egyptian fraction mathematics. The abstract weights and measures units may have first arisen with hekat unities (64/64), and scaled Egyptian fraction remainders recorded in the Akhmim Wooden Tablet. The scaled remainders may have preceded the development of theoretical 2/n tables, and the general use of prime numbers, and LCM's. Scholarly omissions of conflicting reviews, a common practice in the history of mathematics community, include Hoyrup's analysis of the RMP and MMP. Hoyrup's point of view appropriately stresses late-MK Babylonian contacts, facts of history. Twenty-first century scholars will likely report additional and unifying abstract contents of the whole body of Egyptian fraction literature by adding other meta discussions.