GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY MODERN AGES

Egypt
A country
located in the
northeastern
corner of
Africa.
Egypt’s
heartland,
the Nile
River valley Egypt has a population of over 84 million
and delta, with the vast majority of Egyptians living in
was the home of one of the principal civilizations of 40,000 square kilometres (less than 4% of
the ancient Middle East and, like Mesopotamia the total land area) along the banks of the
farther east, was the site of one of the world’s River Nile, where the only arable land is
earliest urban and literate societies. Pharaonic found. The vast majority of the remaining
Egypt thrived for some 3,000 years through a land is made up of sparsely inhabited, arid
series of native dynasties that were interspersed desert.
with brief periods of foreign rule. After Alexander Egypt's capital is Cairo, in the north of the
the Great conquered the region in 323 BC, urban country, which has a population of
Egypt became an integral part of the Hellenistic approximately 12 million. Alexandria is the
(The period covers the period of Mediterranean history second largest city, with a population of
between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and over 4 million.
the emergence of the Roman Empire) ,world.
Egypt is one of the oldest civilizations of
Under the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty, an the world, established over 5,000 years ago.
advanced literate society thrived in the city Based around the River Nile, whose annual
of Alexandria, but what is now Egypt was flood was central to the country's
conquered by the Romans in 30 BC. It remained prosperity, various civilizations flourished.
part of the Roman Republic and Empire and then The Pharaohs reigned intermediately both
part of Rome’s successor state, the Byzantine in Memphis in the north and Thebes in the
Empire, until its conquest by Arab Muslim armies south, bringing a culture that has continued
in AD 639–642. to fascinate and inspire people the world
over with features such as the pyramids,
Egypt was called "The Gift of the Nile" by hieroglyphics and numerous awe inspiring
Herodotus, a Greek historian. temples and artefacts.
Without the Nile the area would be entirely desert
River Nile flooded every year during month of July Evidence of the Pharaohs and the Romans
and left rich soil. This rich soil was ideal for still exists at the Sukari Gold Mine today, as
planting crops. well as the remains of the British Mine
Manager's house from relatively recent
times (the 1950s).

Economy and Currency

The Egyptian economy is one of the largest

in the Arab. The largest sectors are natural
resources, agriculture, tourism and

For SLSU use only 61

1
GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY MODERN AGES

industry. The Egyptian currency is the Egyptian Who were the farmers in Ancient Egypt?
Pound..
The pharaoh got the rich peasants to do the
Prospectivity farm work on the rich lands.

Egypt is situated on the Arabian-Nubian Shield and

rich gold deposits are found throughout this region.
Sukari is the only gold mine in Egypt. However
other companies have established mines in other
parts of the Arabian-Nubian Shield, such as Eritrea,
Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia.

Languages and Religion

Polytheistic(believed in many gods)

2000 Gods

Built huge temples to honor gods

Most villagers were farmers. Farmers lived
Believed in afterlife in towns too, along with craft workers,
traders and other workers and their
It is estimated that over 90% of Egypt's population families.
are Muslim (mostly Sunni), with the remaining
population being predominantly Coptic Christian. What crops did the Egyptian Farmers
Arabic is the official language of Egypt, although grow?
English is widely understood.
Egyptians grew crops such as wheat, barley,
vegetables, figs, melons, pomegranates and
vines. They also grew flax which was made
into linen.
The most important crop was grain. The
ancient Egyptians used grain to make bread,
porridge and beer. Grain was the first crop
they grew after inundation (flooding
season). Once the grain was harvested, they
grew vegetables such as onions, leeks,
cabbages, beans, cucumbers and lettuce.

Farmers planted fruit trees and vines along

paths, to give shade as well as fruit.

Where did the farmers grow their crops?

The Egyptians grew their crops along the
banks of the River Nile on the rich black
soil, or kemet which was left behind after
Ancient Egyptian Farming the yearly floods. The fertile soil was ideal
to grow healthy crops.
The people of ancient Egypt grew everything they
needed to eat. How many seasons were there in
Ancient Egypt?

For SLSU use only 61

2
GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY MODERN AGES

Egyptian farmers divided their year into three

seasons, based on the cycles of the Nile River:

Akhet - the inundation (June-September): The

Flooding Season. No farming was done at this time,
as all the fields were flooded. Instead, many
farmers worked for the pharaoh (king), building
pyramids or temples. Some of the time was spent
mending their tools and looking after animals.
Shaduf (shadoof) is a machine to move
Peret (October-February): The Growing Season. In water from a lower place to a higher place.
October the floodwaters receded, leaving behind a
layer of rich, black soil. This fertile soil was then What animals did the Egyptian farmers
ploughed and seeded. have?

Shemu (March-May): The Harvesting Season. The Animals were very important to Egyptian
fully grown crops had to be cut down (harvested) farmers. Animals helped them with jobs
and removed before the Nile flooded again. It was like trampling in the seeds, pulling the
also the time to repair the canals ready for the next plough, eating unwanted grain or wheat
flood. and providing the Egyptians with food and
drink. They kept animals such as cattle,
What farming tools did they have in Ancient goats, pigs, ducks, cows, and geese.
Egypt? Ancient Egyptian medicine
Ancient Egyptians had simple farming tools such as
Some of the earliest records of medical care
winnowing scoops, hoes, rakes, flint-bladed sickles
come from ancient Egypt.
and ploughs.
The ancient Egyptians believed in prayer as
a solution to health problems, but they also
had natural, or practical remedies such as
herbs.
The ancient Egyptians thought that gods,
demons, and spirits played a key role in
causing diseases.
Doctors believed that spirits blocked
channels in the body and that this affected
How did they lift water from canals on to the the way the body worked. They looked for
land? ways to unblock these channels. They used
To lift the water from the canal they used a shaduf. a combination of prayer and natural — or
A shaduf is a large pole balanced on a crossbeam, a non-spiritual — remedies.
rope and bucket on one end and a heavy counter The fact that ancient Egyptians had systems
weight at the other. By pulling the rope it lowered of letters and numbers meant they were
the bucket into the canal. The farmer then raised able to record and develop ideas and make
the bucket of water by pulling down on the weight. calculations. Documented ancient Egyptian
He then swung the pole around and emptied the medical literature is among the oldest in
bucket onto the existence today.

For SLSU use only 61

3
GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY MODERN AGES

Surgery The conventions for reading and writing

numbers is quite simple; the higher
Egyptian physicians underwent training and could number is always written in front of the
successfully fix broken bones and dislocated joints. lower number and where there is more
Basic surgery — meaning procedures close to the than one row of numbers the reader should
surface of the skin or on the skin — was a common start at the top.
skill, and doctors knew how to stitch wounds
effectively.
They used bandages and would bind certain plant
products, such as willow leaves, into the bandages
to treat inflammation.
However, they did not perform surgery deep inside
the body, probably because there were no
anesthetics or antiseptics.
Circumcision of baby boys was common practice. It # Sample
is hard to tell whether female circumcision existed.
There is one mention, but this may be a
mistranslation. =__________
Egyptian Mathematics Numbers

Hieroglyphic Numbers =___________________

The Egyptians had a decimal system using seven

different symbols. =____________________
1 is shown by a single stroke.
10 is shown by a drawing of a hobble for cattle. =______________________
100 is represented by a coil of rope.
Convert to Egyptian numeral
1,000 a drawing of a lotus plant.
25 =______________________
10,000 is represented by a finger.
100,000 a tadpole or frog 398 =_____________________

1,000,000 figure of a god with arms raised above 5, 813 =____________________

his head.
35, 978 =___________________

Ancient Egyptian Inventions

The Ox-drawn Plough

Using the
power of
oxen to
pull the
plough

For SLSU use only 61

4
GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY MODERN AGES

revolutionised agriculture and modified versions of filled with water and easily raised then
this Egyptian invention are still used by farmers in emptied onto higher ground.
developing countries around the world.
The Sickle Surgical Instruments

Egyptians invented medical surgery. It

describes 48
surgical cases of
The sickle is a curved injures of the head,
neck, shoulders,
blade used for cutting
breast and chest. It
and harvesting grain, includes a list of
such as wheat and barley instruments used
during surgeries
Irrigation with instructions
for the suturing of
The Egyptians wounds using a
constructed canals and irrigation ditches to needle and thread.
harness Nile river’s yearly flood and bring water to This list includes
distant fields. lint, swabs,
Shadoof bandage, adhesive plaster, surgical stitches
and cauterization. It is also the earliest
document to make a study of the brain. The
Cairo Museum has a collection of surgical
instruments which include scalpels,
scissors, copper needles, forceps, spoons,
lancets, hooks, probes and pincers.

Wigs

During the hot

summers
many
Egyptians
shaved their
heads to keep
them clean
and prevent
pests such as
lice. Although
priests
remained bald as part of their purification
The Shadoof is a long balancing pole with a weight
rituals, those that could afford it had wigs
on one end and a bucket on the other. The bucket is
made in various styles and set with
perfumed beeswax.

For SLSU use only 61

5
GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY MODERN AGES

Cosmetic Makeup small, parasitic flatworms, which still exists

in Egypt today. There seems to have been
The Egyptian invented eye makeup as far back as no syphilis or rickets.
4000 B.C. They combined soot with a lead mineral Black Ink
called galena to create a black ointment known as
The ancient Egyptians use a mixture of bee
kohl. They also made green eye makeup by
combining malachite with galena to tint the wax, soot and vegetable gum to make black
ointment. ink.
Both men and women wore eye makup; believing it Focus Question
could cure eye diseases and keep them from falling
victim to the evil eye. 1. Which statement below best describes
Toothpaste hieroglyphics? ( A) type of art using letters
At the 2003 dental conference in Vienna, dentists and sounds (B) A form of writing using
sampled a replication of ancient Egyptian picture symbols (C) A fancy way of writing
toothpaste. Its ingredients included powdered of
ox hooves, ashes, burnt eggshells and pumice. the Greek alphabet (D) A font that can be
Another toothpaste recipe and a how-to-brush use with any language
guide was written on a papyrus from the fourth
century AD describes how to mix precise amounts 2. How can we write 345?
of rock salt, mint, dried iris flower and grains of
pepper, to form a “powder for white and (A) Three coil of rope and four piece of
perfect teeth.” rope and five lines (B) Two coil of rope and
four piece of rope (C) Three piece of
Papyrus
Papyrus was a plant and the plant was able to help ropeand four coil of rope and five lines . (D)
them to make wood to build ships, but it also was Three piece of and four lines coil of rope
used to make paper. and five rope

3. What body of water played a major role

in the development of the Ancient Egyptian
civilization? (A) Mediterranean Sea (B)
Red Sea (C) Indian Ocean (D) Nile River

4. Where was Ancient Egypt located? (A)

Northeast Africa (B) Southern Europe (C)
Eastern Asia (D) Australia

The Egyptians would use the paper to write things 5. Which of the following is true about the
such as religious ideas and books. use of makeup in Ancient Egypt? (A) It
was used by both men and women. (B) It
Mummification protected their skin from the harsh sun. (C)
It was thought to have special healing
The Egyptians were so expert at preserving the powers. (D) All of the above
bodies of the dead that after thousands of years we
know of the diseases they suffered such as arthritis, 6. What was a Pharaoh? (A) A type of
tuberculosis of the bone, gout, tooth decay, bladder statue erected to the Egyptian gods (B)
stones, and gallstones; there is evidence, too, of the The leader of Egypt (C) A large structure
disease bilharziasis (schistosomiasis), caused by where the Egyptian kings were buried (D)

For SLSU use only 61

6
GEC08-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY MODERN AGES

All of the above a. 5,108 b. 50, 109 c. 5, 109 d. 15, 109

7. Which Egyptian Numeral = 13 ?

11. Queen Hatshepsut has ordered her
Nubian general, Nehsi, to sail to the Land of

a. c. Punt and obtain

planks of the finest cut cedar wood for the
gates and doors of her new temple.
b. . D.
Each ship can carry planks of wood so
how many ships will Nehsi have to take
with him to transport all the wood back to
Egypt?

(A) 5 (B) 10 (C) 15 (D) 20

8. Which set of Egyptian numeral is wrong

a. c.
https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/ec
onomies/Asia-and-the-Pacific/India-
b. d. AGRICULTURE.html#ixzz6ZaeyZYMp

https://www.livescience.com/28634-
indian-culture.html
9. What is the equivalent Egyptian https://www.britannica.com/place/Egypt
numeral for 1,025
http://www.centamin.com.au/centamin/o
a. perations/egypt/egypt-country-overview

http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/
b. egypt/farming.htm

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/artic
c. les/323633#channel-theory

https://discoveringegypt.com/ancient-
d. egyptian-inventions/

10. The equivalent roman numeral for https://discoveringegypt.com/ancient-

egyptian-inventions/

For SLSU use only 61

7