ANCIENT EGYPTIANS

Ancient Egyptians has been the most mysterious and impressive civilization of the history.  Their religious beliefs, engineering talents and passion for art have shaped the future of the world. They inspired many other civilizations, and laid the foundation of the world of science.  In this article we will examine about architectural structre of pyramids, Egyptian religion including their culture of death and their contributions to science, medicine and writing systems.

Ancient Egyptian civilization was established in Africa, near  the Nile River and lasted over 3,000 years from 3150 BCE to 30 BCE. It is one of the oldest civilizations of the world. Egyptians observation skills played a big role on their inventions. On consequence of flooding of the Nile River they calculated a calendar called “Coptic”. According to this calendar a year was 360 days including 3 seasons. Each season lasted 4 months and a month was 30 days. As we can tell some of the properties were same as the Julian Calendar. Humans didn’t know how to communicate back then because writing systems had not been found yet.  Ancient Egyptians used to draw symbols on the walls, and it resulted turning into an alphabet known as the “hieroglyphic alphabet”.

The Egyptians had a unique understanding of religion compared to other civilizations. Fundamentals of religion was believing in gods and life after death. They practiced a polytheistic religion that included deities such as Isis, Anubis, Thoth, Hathor. Egyptians believed that they would be resurrected after death, and that their souls would be able to easily find their bodies afterward. Therefore, they took great care to keep their bodies intact by using mummification technique following certain spiritual beliefs. Mummification is the process of preserving a dead body as a mummy.(Cambridge Dictionary)Gradually, the skin and underlying tissues loses their moisture, causing the body appear as dark, leathery surface.(The Guardion, 2025)

There are few steps of mummification. First, a message sent out to inform the community about the loss. The relatives of the deceased organized to mourn for the ceremony and start the preparation of the body.This ritual was a significant step for Egyptians, as they believed the body and the soul have to reunite to attain eternity. Second, the body brought cautiously into a tent known as “ibu”. During the embalming stage, the body was throughly purified by a good -smelling palm wine and rinsed out with the water from the River Nile. In ancient times brain was not considered an useful organ. Hence, it was discarded by inserting a special hooked rod through the nostrils directly to the skull. After that internal organs were removed by cutting out the stomach.They were washed meticulously and left in a salt called “natron” to dry out the body. Each of them was stored in jars. Later on the body was placed on a tilt-slab  covered with natrons. Moisture that was left on body was collected in a bowl and then left to dry out for almost 40 days. Forty long days later the body was again washed in Nile water and oiled to maintain the skin’s resilience. If the body was fully dried, embalmers would start wrapping up the entire body. Between the layers, charms named  as ampulets were placed to protect the body from evils in afterlife. In the last step, the wrapped-up mummy was decorated by using various cosmetics or even a portrait mask. Finally, they placed the mummy carefully into a decorated coffin. Even from the coffins, the status difference was obvious. While the coffins of the wealthy people were adorned well, those of the poor were neglected. This shows that Egyptians were advanced in medicine as well.

The pyramids(Cheops, Khafre, and Mykerios) one of the seven wonders of the world. Their structure demonstrates great mathematical accuracy and was constructed to face the cardinal points of the compass. The Cheops Pyramid is the biggest among others, and located in Giza. The Pharaoh Cheops had it built it for himself and his wife. Two million three hundred thousand bricks were used for its construction. According to Heredotus, this pyramid took 20 years to complete. The dimensions of pyramids were average 150-230 meters. Egyptians talent of building giant structures, statues were stemmed from what are today the principle of mechanics.

In conclusion, the Ancient Egyptians contributed to todays science world through their achievements in science, architecture and religion. With their advanced knowledge of mathematics and observation skills they laid the foundation of engineering, medicine and astronomy. The civilization of Ancient Egypt left behind a lasting legacy that sheds light on the future.

REFERENCES:

Vedantu.com/ How were mummies made?

Cambridge Dictionary/ definition of mummification

Theguardian.com/ Mummification:what is it and how can it ocur?

https://abs.cu.edu.tr/ HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND GEOLOGY 3

Ancient Egyptians.

Download • 16KB