| Résume | Mesopotamia and Egypt were the earliest cultures that developed writing systems and notations for numbers. Both were used by their rulers (kings) to administer the country and to govern available resources. These early formal systems include explicit and implicit elements of the normative orders that structured their respective societies, e.g. by prescribing the work-load (measured in quantities of produce) that had to be delivered in set time periods. For Mesopotamia, a relation between mathematical and legal procedure texts has been established by Jim Ritter based on the verbal structures in these texts. The case for ancient Egypt, however, is not as straightforward, which will be explored in this talk.
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