Ancient Egyptian Contributions
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The Egyptians had made a vast variety of different achievements and have become extremely famous for these contributions to our present day world.
Time Tellers One of the most fascinating would be the calendar! As early as 2700 B.C.E. to 2200 B.C.E. this thriving society had a calendar, and even a working clock. Now these items are very much so different from those that you may have in your kitchen or living room at home. Though they did the same job, the drastic time differences greatly influenced how the Egyptian calendar and clock were constructed and used. The calendar ,though much like yours at home, was based on the farming season while the present day calendar is based on the months in a year. While we have twelve months in a year, the Egyptians based their calendars on the three seasons, with each season having a total of three months. The three farming seasons were flooding season, planting season, and harvest season. In total this gave the people of Egypt a total of 360 days in the year. They soon realized that there were a handful of extra days, which would later be made into special holidays. The special holidays were specifically holy days and there were five. They had almost exactly as many days of the year as we do now! Not including the leap year of course. But what about the watch on your wrist, or the pesky alarm clock that gets you up every morning. Well, you don't have to feel alone. Egyptians had a even more fine system of telling their own time. Their clock was made with an obelisk, and was based on what area the obelisks' shadow was pointing at. They invented this at around 3500 B.C.E. Soon, they even made the first, or one of the first portable clocks. It was a mini sundial. Only a foot long, or maybe even a little more, and was not all as heavy as you would expect! Papyrus To Paper Ancient Egyptians were also very highly regarded for creating some of the worlds fist ever paper like materials. They would use the papyrus plant to take this legendary leap into their technological advancements! To make papyrus, and how they stumble upon this new fancy technique, is a long and ,in our day in age, grueling task to carry out. First you must take your papyrus and then beat it to a pulp. Then it must dry off for a day. Both of these tasks were carried out twice for just a one-sided sheet of papyrus paper! It had to be one-sided because the other side, even after drying twice, will be too wet and ruin what you have just written down. Though paper is the most mind boggling use for papyrus, they had many other uses for this river plant. These consisted of baskets, sandals, mats, rope, blankets, chairs, tables, mattresses, cloths, perfume, and even food for those families who didn't have much to eat, or where famine. They would boil the tough river plant and feast upon it. But papyrus also had more useful purposes such as medicine, but paper is the by far the most extraordinary use! they used it for so many different tasks, that they called it the "gift of the Nile". Sails of Squares Traveling one the Nile from the South and to the North was easy and just about effortless. But if you wanted to travel the other way around ,or North to South, then it was very difficult and even most times unsuccessful to reach your destination in a timely fashion. Till one day a very smart young man invented the square sail. It was literally a boat sail in the shape of a square. It worked quite effectively by catching the wind and pushing the boats forwards and on-wards in a much more timely rate than ever before. Afterlife the ancient Egyptians have also given us a great understanding about the different types of afterlives that their are in the world. Click on the "Video" button to view their afterlife! |
Izabella Reed