Ancient Egyptian Mastabas
The mastaba was used by the early pharaohs of Pre- and Early-Dynastic periods, but faded out of royal use in favor of the pyramids. The word comes from the Arabic word for “bench,” and it was a rectangular structure that served as a tomb. The mastaba continued to be used by Egyptians who were not […]
Archaeological Evidence
Even though the story of the Exodus out of ancient Egypt is the Torah’s basis for creation, there is no real archaeological evidence in support of it. The main issue is that with the sheer number of people migrating from one place to another, there should be some recording of it available. Some researchers believe that […]
The Exodus
The Exodus in ancient Egypt refers to a time when the Israelites were led out of Egypt by Moses. The Israelites had been in Egypt for hundreds of years, and eventually became so numerous that the Pharaoh decided he couldn’t trust them. He didn’t want to take the chance that they could oust him from […]
Ancient Egyptian Cities & Regions
The distinctive geography of ancient Egypt with a narrow strip of lush fertile land surrounded by desert saw its cities built close to the Nile River. This ensured a ready supply of water, access to hunting grounds in the Niles marshes and a transport network of boats. Cities and towns were divided into “Upper” and “Lower” regions. Ancient Egypt […]
Calendars
One sign of an advanced civilization is the development of a calendar system. The ancient Egyptians developed their calendar more than 5,000 years ago. It initially comprised a the 12-month lunar cycle separated into three, four-month seasons that coincide with the annual cycle of Nile River floods. However, the ancient Egyptians noticed these floods could […]
Ancient Egyptian Food and Drink
When we think of the Ancient Egyptians we rarely stop to think about their food and drink, yet their diet tells us much about their society and civilization. Egypt may be a hot arid land with vast stretches of shifting sand, yet the annual flooding of the river Nile created the Nile Valley, one of the most […]
Ancient Egyptian Technology
The ancient Egyptian concept of ma’at or harmony and balance in all things lay at the heart of their approach to technology. Harmony and balance could be maintained by overcoming life’s problems with human ingenuity through advances in technology. While those ancient Egyptians believed the gods gifted many great benefits to the Egyptians, an individual still had […]
Ancient Egyptian Medicine
Ancient Egyptian medical practises were so advanced that many of their procedures and observations were not eclipsed by western medicine for centuries following the fall of Rome. Both the ancient Greeks and Roman borrowed extensively from Egyptian medical expertise. Doctors in ancient Egypt were both male and female, made house calls, understood the importance of cleanliness in […]
Origins of Astrology: The Egyptian Legacy
In his first encyclical letter “Deus Caritas Est” (God is love), Pope Benedict wrote: “Everything has its origin in God’s love, everything is shaped by it, everything is directed towards it.” The equivalent of what Benedict says about what God’s love means to Christians was, for the ancient Egyptians, transformation. If there was one thing […]
Early Contacts
Early Contacts: Figure 3. Latin translation of Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine (Source) During the period when elements of this composite Arabian culture began to penetrate the Latin West, France was the seat of Latin civilisation, and its schools occupied the leading position in the cultural life of the Latin world. Englishmen were at the heart of this […]
