In the 'rhetorical' stage of mathematical notation, calculations were described purely by words rather than symbols.
Notes on verification
Directly confirmed by Wikipedia's Timeline of Mathematics and History of mathematical notation articles, with additional corroboration from an academic paper and a secondary wiki source. Terminology and description are consistent across all sources.
Sources
- Timeline of mathematics (en.wikipedia.org)
- https://math.fandom.com/wiki/History_of_mathematical_notation (math.fandom.com)
- https://ijrar.org/papers/IJRAR19D6223.pdf (ijrar.org)