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 occur over a spread of 80 days towards the end of June. They observed the floods coincided with the heliacal rising of the star Sirius, so they revised their calendar basing it on the cycle of this star’s appearance. This is one of the first recorded instances of a society applying astronomy to refine the accuracy of a calendar to track the days of the year. We still use a version of the ancient Egyptian calendar model today.
Clocks
Ancient Egyptians were also one of the early civilisations to divide the day into parts using different devices to track time, the ancient equivalent of the clock. Earl forms of timepieces comprised were shadow clocks, sundials, obelisks and merkhets.
Time was determined by tracking the position of the sun, while the night was tracked using the rise and setting of the stars.
Some evidence has survived that primitive water clocks were used in ancient Egypt. These “clocks” used bowl-shaped vessels with a small hole drilled in their base. They were floated on top of a larger water container and were allowed to gradually fill up. The rising water level represented the passing hours. The priesthood predominantly used these devices to measure time inside their temples and to time sacred religious rites.
Construction And Engineering Technologies
Across ancient Egypt arose vast temple complexes, sprawling palaces, awe-inspiring pyramids and colossal tombs. Ancient Egypt was a highly conservative society. They evolved processes and procedures for their epic construction programs that combined advanced mathematics, engineering, and astronomy and material science knowledge.
Many questions remain unanswered today as to how the Egyptian constructed their amazing building. However, some explanations can be found in inscriptions in ancient Egyptian monument inscriptions, tomb paintings and texts.
Unquestionably, the ancient Egyptians enjoyed extraordinary insights into technology and applied science.
Organized Labor
One of the keys to the success of ancient Egypt’s monumental construction projects was their mastery of logistics and organization on a stupendous scale for their time. The Egyptians were one of the first societies to invent and deploy a highly efficient system of organized labour. Employed on a massive scale, villages to house workers and artisans were constructed together with the bakeries, granaries and markets required to sustain the labour force needed to construct these immense stone and mud- brick structures sometimes for decades during the downtime created by the annual Nile floods.
Tools, Levers And Simple Machines
Quarrying, transporting and erecting so much monumental stonework required a range of simple machines to streamline the process and augment human exertion. The lever, the counterweight crane and the ramp were examples of simple construction machines employed by the ancient Egyptians. Many of the methods and principles devised then are still widely used in modern construction projects.
Construction tools were essentially simple and many examples have been found in tombs, in ancient quarries and construction sites. Materials used for the most commonly used tools here stone, copper and bronze. Quarrying, stone working and construction tools include stones, pick-hammers, mallets and chisels. Larger tools were created to move bricks, stone blocks and statues.
Architectural tools consisted of flat levels and various types of plumb lines for gauging vertical angles. Common measuring instruments included squares, ropes and rules.
Ancient Mortar
Archaeological remains of port structures found east of Alexandria’s Portus Magnus show foundations comprised of large blocks of limestone and mortar detritus anchored in a formwork of planks and piles. Each pile was squared off and included notches on both sides to hold the pile planks.
What Technology Was Used In Building The Pyramids?
The technologies used during the construction of the Great Pyramid still mystifies Egyptologists and engineers to this present day. Researchers get glimpses into their methods and technologies thanks to the administrative accounts recalling aspects of a construction project. Following the failure of the collapsed pyramid at Meidum, care was taken to ensure each step was executed according to the original blueprint devised by Imhotep, the Pharaoh Djoser’s vizier. Later in the Old Kingdom, Weni, the Egyptian Governor of the South, had an inscription carved detailing how he travelled to Elephantine to source the granite blocks used to create a false door for a pyramid. He describes how he instructed five canals for towboats to be excavated to enable supplies to be transported for further construction.
Surviving accounts such as Weni’s illustrate the immense effort and concentration of resources required to construct ancient Egypt’s colossal monuments. Numerous inscriptions exist detailing the supplies needed to sustain the workforce as well as the materials required to erect these vast structures. Similarly, we copious documents have come down to us outlining the difficulties involved in constructing the Giza pyramids together with their sprawling temple complexes. Unfortunately, these accounts shed little light on the technology employed to build these imposing structured.
The most popular and enduring theory as to how the ancient Egyptians build the pyramids at Giza involves the use of a system of ramps. These ramps were built as each pyramid was raised.
One modification to the ramp theory involved speculation that ramps were used on the inside of the pyramid, rather than their exterior. External ramps may have been used during the early stages of construction but then were moved inside. Quarried stones were transferred inside the pyramid via the entrance and transported up the ramps to their final position. This explanation accounts for the shafts discovered inside the pyramid. However, this theory fails to factor in the massive weight of the stone blocks or how the hordes of workers busy on the ramp could move the blocks up the steep angles inside the pyramid.
Another theory suggests the ancient Egyptians used hydraulic water power. Engineers have established the water tables of the Giza plateau are relatively high and were even higher during the construction phase of the Great Pyramid. Hydraulic water pressure could have been exploited via a pumping system to assist in raising the stone blocks up a ramp and into position. Egyptologists are still vigorously debating the purpose theses internal shafts within the Great Pyramid played.
Some ascribe a spiritual purpose in assisting the deceased king’s soul to ascend to the heavens while others see them as simply a remnant of construction. Unfortunately, there are no definitive archaeological evidence or texts to indicate one function or another.
Hydraulic pumps had been used previously on construction projects and the ancient Egyptians were well acquainted with the principal of a pump. The Middle Kingdom pharaoh King Senusret (c. 1971-1926 BCE) drained the Fayyum district lake during his reign by using a system of pumps and of canals.
