Astronomy
Egyptian culture was greatly influenced by astronomy. Ancient Egyptian astronomy was very sacred. Pyramids and temples had been built and positioned in relation to the the stars. The Egyptian calendar was based on astronomical indicators as well.
For example, when the brightest star in our sky, Sirius, rose before the Sun, the Egyptians knew their annual flood was going to occur.
Star-Structures
Various tools were used when planning the design and placement of a pyramid or temple. One of these tools was called merkhet which means “indicator”. This was a small wooden plank with a hole at one end. Ancient astronomers would look through the hole and angle the device until their target star was aligned properly.
Calendar of the Cosmos
The Nile River flooded every year at the same time, when Sirius rose before the Sun on the morning of the summer solstice. This event was marked as day 1 of their calendar year. The Egyptian calendar had 365 days and 12 months with 30 days in each month and 5 “feast days” at the end of the year. Their civil calendar was so closely tied into farming that the Egyptians divided it up into three main seasons: inundation, growing and harvest. They also made the first leap year calendar in 238 B.C. and added an extra day every fourth year.
Inundation:
- toflood;coveroroverspreadwithwater;deluge.
Hieroglyphs
English is based on 26 characters--letters. Letters that are combined into words...and then into sentences...which tell a story.
Ancient Egyptian writing uses many more. It began with about 700 characters and eventually grew to include over 6,000 hieroglyphic characters. Each hieroglyph represents a common object in ancient Egypt. Hieroglyphs could represent the sound of the object or they could represent an idea associated with the object.
Hieroglyphs are like a picture puzzle that can be "sounded out" by reading the sounds symbolized by the pictures. When these sounds are read aloud together, the statements often becomes obvious. Try solving the modern example below:
Alphabet characters were the basis for hieroglyphic writings. The basic hieroglyph characters are refered to as the ALPHABET. They 'spell out' names or anything which can't be represented by other characters. The alphabet characters are read as the sound of the object they represented.
Although vowels were used in the spoken language, they were not usually written unless a word begins with a vowel or where it might be confusing if left out…like with names.
Just like every written language, hieroglyphic writings needed conventions to keep writings consistent and readable. For instance English is always read left to right.
Hieroglyphic writing was written in columns or rows. Reading direction is determined by the direction that human and animal figures faced. Reading starts from the direction that figures face and continues in the opposite direction.
Hieroglyphs couldbe written left to right. / But they were usually
written right to left.
/ Columns were read down as we would read lines down a page. The Egyptians liked symmetry. If hieroglyphs were inscribed in a column, they would often inscribe the same text in the opposite column, except with the writing reversed. /
Mathematics
Egyptians developed some of the first geometry. When the Nile flooded each year, it washed away land boundaries. To restore property lines, they measured the land by using ropes that were knotted at regular intervals (example: every 2 feet). They also needed it to build their great structures, such as their pyramids. A typical math problem for Egyptian students would be "From a certain amount of grain, how many loaves can be baked?" or "Given a ramp of length x and height y, how many bricks are needed?"
They used addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They used algebra and geometry on a regular basis. They invented fractions. Their number system did not have a zero.
In their daily lives, the Egyptians who used mathematics most likely were priests and priestesses in charge of workers, surveyors, masons and engineers, tax collectors, shop keepers and at least some of the buyers, and cooks. The higher form of math, of course, was done by those with the building-related jobs and the priests. Shop keepers, cooks and the lower classes probably only used the simple types of mathematics that we, today, use in our everyday lives.
When we examine the ancient pyramids today, experts have discovered mathematical wonders. The pyramids display an expertise in math that we could replicate today only with our technology, and some of them we can’t replicate at all!
Medicine
A very important invention of the Egyptians was medicine. This was very helpful to the Egyptians, because now if they are hurt or are sick they could use these medicines to cure them. The Egyptians were very good at figuring out human anatomy and were even able to recognize internal organs when people died. They also knew that pulse was somehow related to the heart. From their records, we can tell that they treated dislocated bones and performed minor surgical procedures. We also know that they treated diseases in a physical manner along with other spiritual practices. Much of the treatment consisted of crushing and mixing herbs. Medicine helped develop the Egyptian civilization and continues on through our own culture today.
Today, some medicines we use still have Egyptian ideas in it. When Egyptologists discovered mummies, they also discovered medicines in their bodies. In the tombs of Pharaohs, medicines were stored in canopic jars for the believed afterlife. Other important items such as food and clothing were also stored in canopic jars for the afterlife.
Egyptians were well practiced in anatomy, or the structure of the body, because they practiced mummification. In preparing bodies for burials, they explored the internal organs and knew where they belonged. However, preparing dead bodies for burial did not always show the organ’s purpose. For instance, the Egyptians believed the heart controlled thought and the brain circulated blood.
Papyrus
No one will deny that with the invention of paper around 140 B.C. the Chinese changed the world forever, but what many people don't know is that the Egyptians had developed an admirable substitute thousands of years earlier from the papyrus plant. This stiff, leggy, reedlike plant grew (and continues to grow) in the marshy areas lining the Nile, among other places. Its tough, fibrous interior proved ideal for making durable sheets of writing material, along with sails, sandals, mats and other necessities of ancient Egyptian life. After they finished making the sheets, they often combined them into scrolls, which were then filled with everything from religious texts to literature and even music.
Ancient Egyptians kept the time-consuming process of manufacturing papyrus a closely guarded secret, allowing them to trade papyrus sheets throughout the region. Because the process was never documented, it was ultimately lost until Dr. Hassan Ragab found a way to make papyrus sheets in 1965
Sun Clocks
After the Sumerians, the Egyptians were the next to formally divide their day into parts something like our hours. Obelisks (slender, tapering, four-sided monuments) were built as early as 3500 B.C. Their moving shadows formed a kind of sundial, enabling citizens to partition the day into two parts by indicating noon. They also showed the year's longest and shortest days when the shadow at noon was the shortest or longest of the year. Later, markers added around the base of the monument would indicate further time subdivisions.
Another Egyptian shadow clock or sundial, possibly the first portable timepiece, came into use around 1500 B.C. to measure the passage of "hours." This device divided a sunlit day into 10 parts plus two "twilight hours" in the morning and evening. When the long stem with 5 variably spaced marks was oriented east and west in the morning, an elevated crossbar on the east end cast a moving shadow over the marks. At noon, the device was turned in the opposite direction to measure the afternoon "hours."
The Egyptians also invented the water clock as early 1417-1379 B.C., during the reign of Amenhotep III, that let them read time at night. The water clock was a stone vessel with slanting sides and a small hole at the bottom through which water would drip at a constant rate. The changing level of water along the markings on the inner walls of the vessel, as it dripped out of the vessel, would indicate the passage of each hour.
Egyptian shadow clock with Obelisk