Much can be attributed to the ancient Egyptians, even some of the earliest forms of technology and inventions that we still use today. They were innovators in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, language and even architecture. In fact, the list of inventions in ancient Egypt can be quite a lengthy document.
While ancient Egypt is usually associated with pharaohs, mummies and pyramids, a great number of ancient Egyptian inventions are still used in our everyday lives.
Paper and Writing
Hieroglyphics
The ancient Egyptians were among the first groups of people to write and keep records of events that happened in their lives. The earliest form of writing was in the form of hieroglyphics, which, simply put, were drawings that portrayed a story. Hieroglyphics are some of the oldest artifacts in the world today, and the Egyptians used them to keep accurate records and maintain control of their empire.
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Papyrus
Papyrus was the first form of durable sheets of paper to write on, and the ancient Egyptians were the ones to develop it. The material was termed “papyrus” because it was made from the papyrus plant.
The ancient Egyptians primarily used papyrus for recording religious texts and other important documents. Papyrus was mass produced in Egypt and sold to other ancient civilizations, such as Ancient Greece, for their record keeping.
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Ink
One of the inventions in Egypt was, surprisingly, black ink. The Egyptian people were very talented at creating not only black ink, but many multi-colored types of ink and dye. The process and depth of color utilized in the Egyptian invention of ink and dye was so marvelous that these brilliant hued colors can still be seen today, thousands of years later.
Time Telling
Calendars
The ancient Egyptian calendar was invented more than 5,000 years ago and was originally based on the 12-month lunar cycle. They grouped the months into three seasons of four months that seemed to coincide with the Nile River.
However, this calendar wasn’t accurate enough. They soon noticed that although the river would flood every year around the end of June, the flood occurred within a range of 80 days.
The ancient Egyptian calendar was invented more than 5,000 years ago and was originally based on the 12-month lunar cycle. They grouped the months into three seasons of four months that seemed to coincide with the Nile River.
However, this calendar wasn’t accurate enough. They soon noticed that although the river would flood every year around the end of June, the flood occurred within a range of 80 days.
Therefore, after noticing that the river’s flooding and rising coincided with the heliacal rising of the star Sirius, they based their year on the cycle of this star’s reappearance, effectively applying astronomy principles to develop a more accurate calendar by which to track the days of the year. We still use ancient Egyptians’ calendar model in our tracking of the days today.
