Feature 5: Advanced Technology

We Ancient Egyptians were very advanced as far as technology went. We invented many things that your people still use today such as clocks, calendars, paper, and pens.

We used two kinds of clocks - the sundial and the water clock. The sundial was much like the analog clocks that some of your people use. It was a circle that had a single hand in the middle. Rather than having the hand move around the clock the sun cast shadows on the dial. Wherever the shadow lander was what time it was.

However, the water clock is unlike anything that your people use today. It was basically two buckets and a stand. One of the buckets sat on top of the stand with a hole poked in the side. Underneath of the top bucket there was the second bucket. Then the top bucket was filled with water and trickled into the bottom bucket. Different levels of water in the bottom bucket equaled a certain time.


Water Clock

 

Not only did we invent the clocks, but we also invented the calendar. It started when we noticed a pattern in the time that the Great Nile would flood. After we noticed that it was almost the same time between every flood we decided to make a calendar to help us predict when the next flood would come.

 

Our calendars are almost exactly the same as your people's today. It  consisted of 365 days, had a 10 day week, a 3 week month, 4 months a season, and 3 seasons a year. (Number info at http://library.thinkquest.org/J002046F/technology.htm)

 

Egyptian Calendar

 

One of our greatest inventions was paper. Without it, not nearly as much history would have been recorded, and because we are human we learn from our mistakes. Without history, those mistakes would never have been recorded - and neither would have great ideas.

 

In order to make paper (which we didn't make from trees - we made papyrus paper) we had to collect the Cyperus Papyrus plant. Then we had to peel the outside of the plant off much like one would shuck corn. Then we had to cut the peeled outside layers into strips. These strips had to soak for a few days so that they became more paper-like. Then the strips are laid out to dry and then cut into the shape of the paper. Then we would pound the papyrus paper individually with a rock to get all of the water that was still soaked in the strips out. Then we laid the strips right next to each other a beat them one more time so that it would seal. After the strips were completely dry we would polish them with a piece of ivory. Then the paper was ready to use.

 

Of course in order to use paper you also had to have a pen. We made our pens out of reed. They are called reed pens. Basically what we did was take a single piece of the reed plant and cut and shape it. Then we made the ink by mixing soot, gelatin, and bees wax. The reed pen would then be dipped into the ink and used to write on papyrus paper.

 

 

We Egyptians created many of the things that your people use every day. Without our intelligence your everyday life might not be the same.

 

-Anonymous Ancient Egyptian Inventor