Since ancient times, traditional mathematics in Ethiopia have related to various aspects of astrology, the calendar, and measurements of physical properties such as length, weight, and distance. Ethiopians used alternate units of measurement which differ from fundamental law; traditionally, scaling and counting values have been described using draft animals such as goats, mules, sheep, or camels, and in modern times, steelyards.
Measurements
Weight
Since measurements of weight often require accurate units or standardized scales, they were used less frequently than measurements of capacity (volume) in the past in Ethiopia. Still, there are three basic ways in which weight has been traditionally determined.
First, an object's lightness or heaviness could be simply assessed by feel (holding in one's hand) or sight (visual approximation). Second, a basic estimation of weight (such as of a load carried by a porter or draft animal) might be compared to a fundamentally different but familiar unit of another measure, such as the length of a human arm or the volume held in a hand. Third, more accurate comparisons of relative weights were done using scales or other apparatus.
Hand measurements were used in many parts of the country to purchase market goods, such as butter. The concepts of load and capacity were often used in lieu of weight when measuring cheap, bulk commodities, such as grain. More sophisticated and accurate techniques were only used for valuable goods such as medicine, gold, and silver. In fact, in the case of gold and silver, weight was essentially considered a concept of value.
Load
The concept of load—a rough measurement based on the average weight carried by a human porter, donkey, mule, or camel—has long been a widely used unit of weight in traditional Ethiopia, due to its natural emergence from traditional transport. Portuguese Jesuit missionary Manuel de Almeida noted in the 17th century that "the Emperor 'raises ten or twelve thousand loads of provisions' from State lands", while the chronicle of Emperor Iyasu I (r. 1682–1706) "reveals that taxes on trade were likewise largely based on mule and donkey loads".
Scales and steelyards
The balance has been the most renowned instrument within Ethiopian society. It has various terms in native languages: the Ge'ez word (; plural: ) is first mentioned by the chronicle Emperor Gelawdewos (1540–1559), in which the ruler spent 10,000 of gold for purchase of books. However, the text may be a mistake by a French editor, and actually refer to 10,000 ().
Two types of weighting instruments were used. The first was a conventional balance consisting of two equal-length lever arms with two trays: one to hold the object to be weighted and the other to hold a comparison weight. The second was a steelyard balance based on a single tray subtended from a level with unequal arms, the longer arm counteracting the tray. As the more sensitive of the two instruments, steelyards were used to measure the weight of precious metals and other valuable goods. The use of the steelyard was first mentioned in Johnston's early-19th century account of Shewan market in Aliyu Amba, where he recorded "a rude kind of balance".
Traditional scales are known by various names, such as (), which are used to measure bars of salt or cotton. This type of scale had three notches for weighing different objects. The first, near the end of piece of wood, was used to weigh heavy objects (also known as ); the second, known as (), was used to measure smaller articles including salt, pepper, flour, coffee, and butter; the third, known as () or (), was equal to half of a and a quarter of an . The modern type of steelyard balance was introduced by Italians during their second occupation of Ethiopia, and are still used by Gurage merchants for fruit and vegetables.
Length and volume measurements
The following lists are traditional Ethiopian measurements of length and volume.
Astrology
Mathematics is often associated with astrology in traditional Ethiopia. Ethiopian astrology, known as hasabe kewakibit, is part of bahire hasab, which is known as Ethiopian astrology and computus (church calendar). According to expert Yared Fenta, there are 28 stars for the 28 days, and 91 stars in one season that are dominant groups than billion stars that can be seen in naked eye, and 13 stars dominate the scene. Stars were also used in ancient times to determine the timing of the harvest season or human behavior.
Aside from this, Ethiopia used zodiac system as fortune telling.