Government and economy , at the
Istanbul Archaeology Museum •
Community banking models — Community banking is a non-traditional form of money-lending. Unlike banks or other classic lending institutions, the funds that community banks lend to borrowers are gathered by the local community itself. This tends to mean that the individuals in a neighborhood or group have more control over who is receiving the
capital and how that capital is being spent. This practice has existed in some form for centuries; in ancient
Egypt, for example, when grain was often used as currency, local granaries would store and distribute the community's food supply. Since that time, a variety of community banking models have evolved. •
Police – In ancient Egypt evidence of law enforcement exists as far back as the
Old Kingdom period. There are records of an office known as "Judge Commandant of the Police" dating to the
Fourth Dynasty. •
Postal system — The first documented use of a postal system, state-sponsored, designated
courier service for the dissemination of written documents is in
Egypt, where
Pharaohs used couriers to send out decrees throughout the territory of the state (2400 BCE). •
Law —
Ancient Egyptian law, dating as far back as 3000 BC, was based on the concept of
Ma'at and characterised by tradition,
rhetorical speech, social equality, and impartiality.
Warfare •
Arrowslit — Loop holes are found for the first time in some Middle kingdom forts. •
Battering rams — The earliest depiction of a possible battering ram is from the tomb of the
11th Dynasty noble Khety, where a pair of soldiers advance towards a fortress under the protection of a mobile roofed structure, carrying a long pole that may represent a simple battering ram. •
Battlements – Another feature of the
Buhen fortress the construction of the world's oldest battlements. •
Catapult — A catapult dating to the 19th century BC was found on the walls of the fortress of
Buhen. (c. 3100 B.C) daggers were adorned as
ceremonial objects with golden hilts and later even more ornate and varied construction. One early silver dagger was recovered with midrib design. •
Draw bridge — The fortress of
Buhen contains the oldest known drawbridges. •
Grappling hook — The ancient Egyptians used grappling hooks as early as the
Bronze Age collapse and in their war with the
Sea people. •
Military organization — As early as the
Old Kingdom (c.2686–2160 BC)
Egypt used specific
military units, with military hierarchy appearing in the
Middle Kingdom (c.2055–1650 BC). • Military scribe and battle recording – The first well documented battle in the history of the world is the
Battle of Megiddo. •
Naval ram — Naval rams were built on ships since at least the reign of
Amenhotep I. •
Police dogs and
war dogs — were used by the Egyptians as early as 4000 B.C. •
Siege towers — Moving siege towers were invented in Egypt during the
First Intermediate Period.
Agriculture and animal husbandry •
Beekeeping — domesticated beekeeping was first recorded in ancient Egypt around 2600 BC. as well as the first use of smoke while extracting the honey from bee nests. •
Diversion dam — The first diversion dam is
Sadd el-Kafara Dam built in Egypt around 2700 B.C. •
Horse stable — The world's oldest horse stables were discovered in the ancient city of
Pi-Ramesses in
Qantir, in
Ancient Egypt, and were established by
Ramesses II (c. 1304–1213 BC). These stables covered approximately 182,986 square feet, had floors sloped for drainage, and could contain about 480 horses. •
Noria — Norias appeared in Egypt in the 4th Century B.C. •
Olive cultivation – Some scholars have argued that olive cultivation originated with the Ancient Egyptians. •
Ox drawn
plough — Ox drawn ploughs were used by Ancient Egyptians as early as 2000 B.C. •
Zoo — The world's first zoo was discovered at
Hierakonpolis dating back to 3,500 B.C.
Transport •
Harbor /
Dock — The earliest known Harbors were those discovered in
Wadi al-Jarf, an ancient Egyptian
harbor, (ca. 2600–2550 BCE, reign of King Khufu), located on the
Red Sea coast. Archaeologists also discovered anchors and storage jars near the site. •
Hulls – Hulls were first built in Egypt as early as 3000 B.C •
Masts and
bipod mast — The bipod mast is a two-legged mast used originally in
Egypt during the
3rd millennium BCE. It can be described as two poles secured together at the top, forming a thin
isosceles triangle. It did not appear until the
Old Kingdom, third dynasty, and disappeared after the sixth dynasty when the pole mast took over during the
Middle Kingdom. •
Paved road — The world's oldest surviving paved road was discovered near
Faiyum dating back to the 26th century BC. •
Sail — cloth sails are depicted in predynastic Egyptian art (c. 3300 B.C). •
Stern-mounted steering oar — A predecessor to the
rudder. Rowing oars set aside for steering appeared on large Egyptian vessels long before the time of
Menes (3100 BC). In the
Old Kingdom (2686 BC–2134 BC) as many as five steering oars are found on each side of passenger boats. Both the tiller and the introduction of an upright steering post abaft reduced the usual number of necessary steering oars to one each side. Single steering oars put on the stern can be found in a number of tomb models of the time, particularly during the
Middle Kingdom when tomb reliefs suggests them commonly employed in
Nile navigation. The first literary reference appears in the works of the
Greek historian
Herodotus (484–424 BC), who had spent several months in
Egypt: "They make one rudder, and this is thrust through the
keel", probably meaning the crotch at the end of the keel (see right pic "Tomb of Menna").
Metallurgy and materials •
Amethyst — a form of
quartz was first used by the Ancient Egyptians. •
Electrum — Electrum was used as early as the third millennium BC in
Old Kingdom of Egypt, sometimes as an exterior coating to the
pyramidions atop
ancient Egyptian
pyramids and
obelisks. It was also used in the making of ancient
drinking vessels. Electrum is mentioned in an account of an expedition sent by Pharaoh
Sahure of the
Fifth Dynasty of Egypt. •
Emerald — Emerald was first mined in Egypt since at least the
New Kingdom. •
Lime mortar — The
Ancient Egyptians were the first to use lime mortars which they used to plaster the
pyramids at Giza. In addition, the Egyptians also incorporated various limes into their religious temples as well as their homes. Indian traditional structures built with lime mortar, which are more than 4,000 years old like
Mohenjo-daro is still a heritage monument of Indus valley civilization in
Pakistan. It is one of the oldest known types of mortar also used in
ancient Rome and
Greece, when it largely replaced the
clay and
gypsum mortars common to ancient Egyptian construction. •
Malachite — Malachite was mined from deposits near the Isthmus of Suez and the Sinai as early as 4000 BC. •
Mercury — The earliest known use of mercury dates to Ancient Egypt around 1500 BC. •
Natron — Natron was used by the
Ancient Egyptians in
mummification. •
Turquoise — Turquoise was mined in Egypt since at least the
First Dynasty (3000 BC), and possibly before then, turquoise was used by the Egyptians and was
mined by them in the
Sinai Peninsula. This region was known as the
Country of Turquoise by the native Monitu.
Serabit el-Khadim and
Wadi Maghareh, believed to be among the oldest of known mines. •
Wattle and daub — Wattle and daub was used in Egypt as early as the
Merimde culture.
Medicine Discoveries •
Anatomy — In 1600 BCE, the
Edwin Smith Papyrus, an Ancient Egyptian
medical text, described the
heart, its vessels,
liver,
spleen,
kidneys,
hypothalamus,
uterus and
bladder, and showed the
blood vessels diverging from the heart. The
Ebers Papyrus (c. 1550 BCE) features a "treatise on the heart", with vessels carrying all the body's fluids to or from every member of the body. •
Cancer – The earliest written record regarding cancer is from circa 1600 B.C in the Egyptian Edwin Smith Papyrus and describes breast cancer. •
Cataract surgery — The earliest known depiction of cataract surgery is on a statue from the
Fifth Dynasty (2467–2457 BCE). •
Cerebrospinal fluid •
Colorectal surgery — The
Chester Beatty Medical Papyrus, is one of the extant
medical papyri, from ancient Egypt. It is dedicated to magical incantations against headaches and remedies for
anorectal ailments, and is dated around 1200 BC. •
Crutch — Crutches were used in
ancient Egypt. •
Diabetes — Diabetes was one of the first diseases described, with an Egyptian manuscript from 1500
BCE mentioning "too great emptying of the urine". The Ebers papyrus includes a recommendation for a drink to take in such cases. The first described cases are believed to have been type 1 diabetes. •
Dracunculiasis or Guinea-worm disease and its treatment – The Ebers Papyrus says that the cure to the Guinea worm disease is to wrap the emerging end of the worm around a stick and slowly pull it out. 3,500 years later, this remains the standard treatment. •
Hematuria — One of the main symptoms of
bilharzia was known and treated by the ancient Egyptians. •
Hysteria — The oldest record of hysteria dates back to 1900 B.C. when Egyptians recorded behavioral abnormalities in adult women on medical papyrus. The Egyptians attributed the behavioral disturbances to a wandering uterus—thus later dubbing the condition hysteria. •
Paralysis •
Urinary incontinence — The management of urinary incontinence with pads is mentioned in the earliest medical book known, the
Ebers Papyrus (1500 B.C).
Inventions •
Bandage — The Ancient Egyptians were the first to use adhesive bandages and were also the first to treat wounds with
honey. •
Breath mint •
Cauterization — Cauterization has been used to stop heavy bleeding since antiquity. The process was described in the
Edwin Smith Papyrus. •
Intramedullary rod — The oldest intramedullary nail was found in the left knee of a
mummy named
Usermontu, the remains of an
Egyptian man from more than 3,500 years ago. Researchers believe the pin was inserted after the man's death, but before his burial. •
Poultice • •
Prosthesis — Prosthetics appeared circa 3,000 BC. with the earliest evidence of prosthetics appearing in ancient Egypt and Iran. The earliest recorded mention of eye prosthetics is from the Egyptian story of the
Eye of Horus dates circa 3000 BC, which involves the left eye of
Horus being plucked out and then restored by
Thoth. The Egyptians were also early pioneers of foot prosthetics, as shown by the wooden toe found on a body from the
New Kingdom circa 1000 BC. •
Splint •
Toothpaste — Since 5000 BC, the Egyptians made a tooth powder, which consisted of powdered ashes of ox hooves, myrrh, powdered and burnt eggshells, and
pumice.
Innovations •
Birth control — The Egyptian
Ebers Papyrus from 1550 BC and the
Kahun Papyrus from 1850 BC have within them some of the earliest documented descriptions of birth control: the use of honey,
acacia leaves and lint to be placed in the vagina to block sperm. •
Gynaecology — The
Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus, dated to about 1800 BC, deals with women's health gynaecological diseases, fertility, pregnancy, contraception, etc. Treatments are non-surgical, comprising applying medicines to the affected body part or swallowing them. The womb is at times seen as the source of complaints manifesting themselves in other body parts. •
Ophthalmology — In the Ebers Papyrus from ancient Rome dating to 1550 BC, a section is devoted to eye diseases. •
Pregnancy test — The ancient Egyptians watered bags of wheat and
barley with the urine of a possibly pregnant woman. Germination indicated pregnancy. The type of grain that sprouted was taken as an indicator of the fetus's sex. •
Rhinoplasty — Treatments for the plastic repair of a broken nose are first mentioned in the
Edwin Smith Papyrus, a transcription of text dated to the
Old Kingdom from 3000 to 2500
BCE. •
Surgical suture — The earliest reports of surgical suture date to 3000 BC in ancient Egypt, and the oldest known suture is in a
mummy from 1100 BC.
Mathematics Algebra •
0 — By 1770 BC, the Egyptians had a symbol for zero in accounting texts. The symbol
nfr, meaning beautiful, was also used to indicate the base level in drawings of tombs and pyramids and distances were measured relative to the base line as being above or below this line. •
Arithmetic progression —
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus problem number 40. •
Conversion of units — Rhind Mathematical Papyrus problem number 42. •
Exponentiation (power of two) — The ancient Egyptians had laid out tables of a great number of powers of two, rather than recalculating them each time. The decomposition of a number thus consists of finding the powers of two which make it up. The Egyptians knew empirically that a given power of two would only appear once in a number. •
Fraction and
arithmetics with fractions — The earliest fractions were
reciprocals of
integers: ancient symbols representing one part of two, one part of three, one part of four, and so on. The Egyptians used
Egyptian fractions BC. About 4000 years ago, Egyptians divided with fractions using slightly different methods. They used least common multiples with
unit fractions. Their methods gave the same answer as modern methods. •
Geometric mean and
geometric progression — problem no.79 in
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus. •
Golden number •
Mathematical symbols — The
Egyptian hieroglyphic sign for addition resembled a pair of legs walking in the direction in which the text was written (
Egyptian could be written either from right to left or left to right), with the reverse sign indicating subtraction: •
Numeral system — Written evidence of the use of mathematics dates back to at least 3200 BC with the ivory labels found in Tomb U-j at
Abydos. These labels appear to have been used as tags for grave goods and some are inscribed with numbers. Further evidence of the use of the base 10 number system can be found on the
Narmer Macehead which depicts offerings of 400,000 oxen, 1,422,000 goats and 120,000 prisoners. •
Pefsu problem (modern day: arithmetic mean and arithmetic progression) •
Pi — Based on the measurements of the
Great Pyramid of Giza , some Egyptologists have claimed that the ancient Egyptians used an approximation of as from as early as the
Old Kingdom. The Rhind Papyrus, dated around 1650 BC but copied from a document dated to 1850 BC, has a formula for the area of a circle that treats as 3.16. •
Quadratic equation — The ancient Egyptians were the first civilization to develop and solve second-degree (
quadratic) equations. This information is found in the
Berlin Papyrus fragment. Additionally, the Egyptians solve first-degree algebraic equations found in Rhind Mathematical Papyrus. •
Red auxiliary number — Red auxiliary numbers were written in red ink in the
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, apparently used as aids for arithmetic computations involving
fractions. •
Regula falsi — The simple false position technique is found in papyri from ancient
Egyptian mathematics. •
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus — from around 1550 BC, has
Egyptian fraction expansions of different forms for prime and composite numbers. •
Seked (modern-day
slope) — The seked is proportional to the reciprocal of our modern measure of
slope or gradient, and to the cotangent of the angle of elevation. •
Square root — The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus is a copy from 1650 BC of an earlier
Berlin Papyrus and other textspossibly the
Kahun Papyrusthat shows how the Egyptians extracted square roots by an inverse proportion method. •
Trigonometry and
trigonometric functions — Rhind Mathematical Papyrus problem number 56. The Egyptians, used a primitive form of trigonometry for building
pyramids in the 2nd millennium BC. •
X (unknown) Areas and volumes • Area of
triangle —
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus problem number 51. • Area of
trapezoid — Rhind Mathematical Papyrus problem number 52. •
Volume of
cylinder — Rhind Mathematical Papyrus problem number 41.
Measurement •
Area — Records of land area also date to the
Early Dynastic Period. The
Palermo stone records grants of land expressed in terms of
kha and
setat. Mathematical papyri also include units of land area in their problems. For example, several problems in the
Moscow Mathematical Papyrus give the area of rectangular plots of land in terms of
setat and the ratio of the sides and then require the scribe to solve for their exact lengths. •
Length — Egyptian units of length are attested from the
Early Dynastic Period. Although it dates to the 5th dynasty, the
Palermo stone recorded the level of the
Nile River during the reign of the Early Dynastic
pharaoh Djer, when the height of the Nile was recorded as 6 cubits and 1 palm (about ). A
3rd Dynasty diagram shows how to construct an elliptical vault using simple measures along an arc. The
ostracon depicting this diagram was found near the
Step Pyramid of
Saqqara. A curve is divided into five sections and the height of the curve is given in cubits, palms, and digits in each of the sections. •
System of measurement and
metrology — Ancient Egypt was one of the first civilization to have system of measurement. •
Triangulation — The use of triangles to estimate distances dates to antiquity. In the 6th century BC, about 250 years prior to the establishment of the
Ptolemaic dynasty, the Greek philosopher
Thales is recorded as using
similar triangles to estimate the height of the
pyramids of
ancient Egypt. He measured the length of the pyramids' shadows and that of his own at the same moment, and compared the ratios to his height (
intercept theorem). Such techniques would have been familiar to the ancient Egyptians. Problem 57 of the
Rhind papyrus, a thousand years earlier, defines the
seqt or
seked as the ratio of the run to the rise of a
slope,
i.e. the reciprocal of gradients as measured today. •
Volume Science •
Geological map — The oldest known geological map is the
Turin papyrus (1150 BCE), which shows the location of building stone and gold deposits in Egypt. It would be another 2900 years before the next geological map was made and this was in France during the mid-1700's. the
Turin Papyrus is also a
topographic map and the first relatively modern-looking of its kind.
Astronomy •
Calendar •
Decan — Decans are 36 groups of stars (small constellations) used in the Ancient Egyptian astronomy. They rose consecutively on the horizon throughout each Earth rotation. The rising of each decan marked the beginning of a new decanal "hour" (Greek hōra) of the night for the ancient Egyptians, and they were used as a sidereal star clock beginning by at least the 9th or 10th Dynasty (c. 2100 BCE). • The discovery of
Algol — An Ancient
Egyptian calendar of lucky and unlucky days composed some 3,200 years ago is claimed to be the oldest historical document of the discovery of Algol. •
Solstice and
Equinox •
Sothic cycle •
Star clock •
Sundials – The earliest sundials known from the archaeological record are shadow clocks (1500
BC or
BCE) from ancient
Egyptian astronomy.
Tools and machines •
Air conditioning — The basic concept behind air conditioning is said to have been applied in ancient Egypt, where reeds were hung in windows and were moistened with trickling water. The evaporation of water cooled the air blowing through the window. This process also made the air more humid, which can be beneficial in a dry desert climate. •
Archimedes' screw — Although commonly attributed to
Archimedes, the device had been used in
Ancient Egypt long before his time. The first records of a water screw, or screw pump, date back to
Ancient Egypt before the 3rd century BC. The Egyptian screw, used to lift water from the
Nile, was composed of tubes wound round a cylinder; as the entire unit rotates, water is lifted within the spiral tube to the higher elevation. A later screw pump design from Egypt had a spiral groove cut on the outside of a solid wooden cylinder and then the cylinder was covered by boards or sheets of metal closely covering the surfaces between the grooves. •
Bellows — Bellows were used as early as the
New Kingdom. •
Combs • Copper
pipes – The c. 2400 BC
Pyramid of Sahure, and adjoining temple complex at
Abusir, was discovered to have a network of copper drainage pipes. •
Core drill — The earliest core drills were those used by the
ancient Egyptians, invented in 3000 BC. •
Doors and
door Locks — – The earliest in records are those represented in the paintings of some ancient Egyptian tombs, in which they are shown as single or double doors, each in a single piece of wood. Doors were once believed to be the literal doorway to the afterlife, and some doors leading to important places included designs of the afterlife. Basic principles of the
Pin tumbler lock may date as far back as 2000 BC in
Egypt; the lock consisted of a wooden post affixed to the door, and a horizontal bolt that slid into the post. The bolt had vertical openings into which a set of pins fitted. These could be lifted, using a key, to a sufficient height to allow the bolt to move and unlock the door. This wooden lock was one of Egypt's major developments in domestic architecture during classical times., c. 2408 BC, painted limestone, 168 x 111.5 × 6 cm,
Cleveland Museum of Art •
Hand fan — Hand fans had been used in Egypt as early as 4,000 years ago. Hand fans have been found in King
Tut's tomb. •
Herodotus Machine — The Herodotus Machine was a machine described by
Herodotus, a
Greek historian. Herodotus claims this invention enabled the ancient Egyptians to construct the
pyramids. The contraption supposedly allowed workers to lift heavy building materials. Herodotus is believed to have encountered the device while traveling through Egypt. With limited reference and no true schematics, this machine has stimulated many historians' theories of how the Ancient Egyptians were able to create pyramids. •
Hinge — Ancient remains of stone, marble, wood, and bronze hinges have been found. Some date back to at least
Ancient Egypt. •
Ink — Ink was used in
Ancient Egypt for writing and drawing on
papyrus from at least the 26th century BC. •
Lathe — The lathe is an ancient tool. The earliest evidence of a lathe dates back to
Ancient Egypt around 1300 BC. There is also tenuous evidence for its existence at a Mycenaean Greek site, dating back as far as the 13th or 14th century BC. •
Lever — Levers (as machines used in lifting heavy weights) were invented in Ancient Egypt. In
ancient Egypt technology, workmen used the lever to move and uplift obelisks weighing more than 100 tons. This is evident from the recesses in the large blocks and the
handling bosses which could not be used for any purpose other than for levers. •
Loom — Looms were used in
ancient Egypt as early as 4400 BC, a foot pedal was used for the earliest horizontal frame
loom. •
Merkhet — The merkhet was an ancient
surveying and timekeeping instrument. It involved the use of a bar with a
plumb line, attached to a wooden handle. It was used to track the alignment of certain stars called
decans or "baktiu" in the Ancient
Egyptian. When visible, the stars could be used to measure the time at night. There were 10 stars for the 10 hours of the night; the day had a total of 24 hours including 12 hours for the day, 1 hour for sunset, and 1 hour for sunrise. Merkhets were used to replace
sundials, which were useless during the dark. •
Ostracon — The
Saqqara ostracon is an
ostracon, an
Egyptian antiquity, tracing to the period of
Djoser (
2650 BC), •
Papyrus scroll — Papyrus paper was first manufactured in Egypt as far back as the fourth millennium BCE. The earliest archaeological evidence of papyrus was excavated in 2012 and 2013 at
Wadi al-Jarf, an
ancient Egyptian
harbor located on the
Red Sea coast. These documents, the
Diary of Merer, date from c. 2560–2550 BCE (end of the reign of
Khufu). •
Parchment — Writing on prepared animal skins had a long history, however.
David Diringer noted that "the first mention of Egyptian documents written on leather goes back to the
Fourth Dynasty (c. 2550–2450 BC), but the earliest of such documents extant are: a fragmentary roll of leather of the
Sixth Dynasty (c. 24th century BC), unrolled by Dr. H. Ibscher, and preserved in the
Cairo Museum; a roll of the
Twelfth Dynasty (c. 1990–1777 BC) now in Berlin; the mathematical text now in the
British Museum (MS. 10250); and a document of the reign of
Ramses II (early thirteenth century BC)." •
Pens and
reed pens – Ancient Egyptians had developed writing on papyrus scrolls when scribes used thin reed brushes or
reed pens from the
Juncus maritimus or sea rush. In his book
A History of Writing, Steven Roger Fischer suggests that on the basis of finds at
Saqqara, the reed pen might well have been used for writing on parchment as long ago as the First Dynasty or about 3000 BC. •
Plumb bob — The plumb bob has been used since at least the time of ancient Egypt •
Pulley — The earliest evidence of pulleys date back to Ancient Egypt in the
Twelfth Dynasty (1991–1802 BCE) •
Protractors — Found the
tomb of architect Kha. •
Ramps and
inclined planes – The
Egyptian pyramids were constructed using inclined planes, •
Razor — Excavations in
Egypt have unearthed solid gold and copper razors in tombs dating back to the 4th millennium BC. •
Rope stretcher — a rope stretcher (or harpedonaptai) was a
surveyor who
measured real property demarcations and
foundations using
knotted cords, stretched so the rope did not sag. The practice is depicted in tomb paintings of the
Theban Necropolis. rope-stretching itself, are attested over 3000 years from the
early dynastic period to the
Ptolemaic kingdom. Khay copied onto a
limestone ostracon, in Egyptian
Hieratic •
Saw — In ancient Egypt, open (unframed) saws made of copper are documented as early as the
Early Dynastic Period, circa 3,100–2,686 BC. Many copper saws were found in tomb No. 3471 dating to the reign of
Djer in the 31st century BC. Saws have been used for cutting a variety of materials, including humans (
death by sawing). Models of saws have been found in many contexts throughout Egyptian history. Particularly useful are tomb wall illustrations of carpenters at work that show sizes and the use of different types. Egyptian saws were at first serrated, hardened copper which cut on both pull and push strokes. As the saw developed, teeth were raked to cut only on the pull stroke and
set with the teeth projecting only on one side, rather than in the modern fashion with an alternating set. Saws were also made of bronze and later iron. •
Scissors — •
Screw pump — The screw pump is the oldest positive displacement pump. The first records of a water screw, or screw pump, dates back to
Ancient Egypt before the 3rd century BC. •
Spoon — Preserved examples of various forms of spoons used by the ancient Egyptians include those composed of
ivory,
flint,
slate and wood; many of them carved with religious symbols. •
Tweezers — Tweezers are known to have been used in
predynastic Egypt. •
Water clock — The oldest water clock of which there is physical evidence dates to c. 1417–1379 BC, during the reign of
Amenhotep III where it was used in the
Temple of Amen-Re at Karnak. The oldest documentation of the water clock is the tomb inscription of the 16th century BC Egyptian court official Amenemhet, which identifies him as its inventor. •
Weighing scale — The oldest attested evidence for the existence of weighing scales dates to the
Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, with
Deben (unit) balance weights, from the reign of
Sneferu (c. 2600 BC) excavated, though earlier usage has been proposed. •
Wig – In Egyptian society men and women commonly had clean shaven or close cropped hair and often wore wigs. The
ancient Egyptians created the wig to shield shaved, hairless heads from the sun. They also wore the wigs on top of their hair using
beeswax and resin to keep the wigs in place. Wealthy Egyptians would wear elaborate wigs and scented cones of animal fat on top of their wigs. During that period a wide variety of furniture pieces were invented and used. •
Camp bed — It is believed that
King Tut, who reigned in
Egypt from approximately 1332 to 1323 BC, may have had the first camping bed. When Tutankhamun's tomb was opened in
1922 a room full of furniture was found to contain a three-section camping bed that folded up into a Z shape.Though the frail young king, who had a
clubfoot, may never have taken part in long-distance explorations, the elaborate folding bed suggests he had an interest in camping and hunting. •
Chairs – Chairs were in existence since at least the
Early Dynastic Period of Egypt (c. 3100 BC). They were covered with cloth or leather, were made of carved wood, and were much lower than today's chairs – chair seats were sometimes only high. •
Chest — The
Ancient Egyptians created the first known chests, using wood or woven reeds, circa 3000 BC. •
Tables – Some very early tables were made and used by the ancient Egyptians around 2500 BC, using wood and
alabaster. They were often little more than stone platforms used to keep objects off the floor, though a few examples of wooden tables have been found in tombs. Food and drinks were usually put on large plates deposed on a pedestal for eating. The Egyptians made use of various small tables and elevated playing boards.
Arts and architecture Architecture •
Capital — The two earliest
Egyptian capitals of importance are those based on the
lotus and
papyrus plants. •
Cavetto —
Ancient Egyptian architecture made special use of large cavetto mouldings as a
cornice, with only a short fillet (plain vertical face) above, and a
torus moulding (convex semi-circle) below. This cavetto cornice is sometimes also known as an "Egyptian cornice", "hollow and roll" or "gorge cornice", and has been suggested to be a reminiscence in stone architecture of the primitive use of bound bunches of reeds as supports for buildings, the weight of the roof bending their tops out. •
Column — In
ancient Egyptian architecture as early as 2600 BC, the architect
Imhotep made use of stone columns whose surface was carved to reflect the organic form of bundled reeds, like
papyrus,
lotus and
palm. In later Egyptian architecture faceted cylinders were also common. Their form is thought to derive from archaic reed-built shrines. Carved from stone, the columns were highly decorated with carved and painted
hieroglyphs, texts, ritual imagery and natural motifs. Egyptian columns are famously present in the
Great Hypostyle Hall of Karnak (circa 1224 BC), where 134 columns are lined up in sixteen rows, with some columns reaching heights of 24 metres.ic capitals •
Corbel arch — Corbelling is a technique first applied by the ancient Egyptians and
Chaldeans. During the
Fourth Dynasty reign of
Pharaoh Sneferu (c. 2600 BC), the
Ancient Egyptian
pyramids used corbel vaults in some of their chambers. •
Gardens – Gardens appeared in Egypt during the
Old Kingdom. There were many types of gardens in Ancient Egypt such as:
pleasure gardens, palace gardens, temple gardens and funerary gardens. •
Hypostyle architecture •
Mastaba — a predecessor to the Egyptian pyramid. Kings of the
Early Dynastic Period were buried there. •
Obelisk — The earliest temple obelisk still in its original position is the red granite Obelisk of
Senusret I of the
XIIth Dynasty at
Al-Matariyyah in
modern Heliopolis. •
Pylon — Pylons were often decorated with scenes emphasizing a king's authority since it was the public face of a cult building. On the first pylon of the temple of
Isis at
Philae, the
pharaoh is shown slaying his enemies while
Isis,
Horus and
Hathor look on. Other examples of pylons can be seen in
Karnak,
Luxor, and
Edfu. of the Temple of Luxor with the remaining obelisk (of two) in front (the second is in the Place de la Concorde in Paris). s, all of them having cavettos • •
Windcatcher — Windcatchers were used in traditional
ancient Egyptian architecture from the very early historical times, and only started to fall out of use in the mid-1900s C.E..
Crafts •
Cosmetic palette •
Egyptian faience • Hollow glass production and
glassware — Egypt and Mesopotamia were the first civilizations to produce glass works(3,500 BC.). The oldest specimens of glass are from Egypt and date back to 2000 B.C. In 1500BC the industry was well established in Egypt. •
Synthetic pigment — The first known synthetic pigment was
Egyptian blue, which is first attested on an alabaster bowl in Egypt dated to
Naqada III (
circa 3250 BC). Egyptian blue (blue frit), calcium copper silicate CaCuSi4O10, made by heating a mixture of
quartz sand,
lime, a
flux and a copper source, such as
malachite. Already invented in the
Predynastic Period of Egypt, its use became widespread by the
4th Dynasty. It was the blue pigment par excellence of
Roman antiquity; its art technological traces vanished in the course of the
Middle Ages until its rediscovery in the context of the
Egyptian campaign and the excavations in
Pompeii and
Herculaneum. •
Tapestry — The earliest known tapestry weave pieces using
linen were found in the tombs of both
Thutmose IV (d. 1391 or 1388 BC) and
Tutankhamen (c. 1323 BC), the latter a glove and a robe. •
Watercolor paper — Painting on
Papyrus was invented in Ancient Egypt long before the invention of Paper. •
Wood carving and Wooden statues – The extreme dryness of the climate of Egypt accounts for the existence of a number of woodcarvings from this remote period. Some wood panels from the tomb of Hosul Egypt, at
Saqqara are of the
Third Dynasty. The carving consists of
Egyptian hieroglyphs and figures in low relief, and the style is extremely delicate and fine. A stool shown on one of the panels has the legs shaped like the fore and hind limbs of an animal, a form common in Egypt for thousands of years., basket,
Eye of Horus,
Sun Disk-(Gard. N5)
Music and dance , wife of
Ramesses II, holding a sistrum (1326–1336 BC) •
Melisma — According to Demetrius of Falorene (3rd century A.D), the Egyptian priests used to praise the gods by singing 7 vowels successively producing sweet sounds. This is the first mention of the melisma which is used in many of the
Coptic hymns today. •
Sistrum — The sistrum was a sacred instrument in ancient Egypt. Perhaps originating in the worship of
Bastet, it was used in dances and religious ceremonies, particularly in the worship of the goddess
Hathor, with the U-shape of the sistrum's handle and frame seen as resembling the face and horns of the cow goddess. •
Syllabtic music style — The Syllabtic music style had been used for 2000 years in the coptic church "Tasbe7a".
Literature •
Epistle — The ancient Egyptians wrote epistles, most often for
pedagogical reasons.
Egyptologist Edward Wente (1990) speculates that the
Fifth Dynasty Pharaoh
Djedkare Isesi (in his many letters sent to his
viziers) was a pioneer in the epistolary genre. accompanied by deities; the death of Amenemhat I is reported by his son
Senusret I in the
Story of Sinuhe. • •
Satire — One of the earliest examples of what we might call satire,
The Satire of the Trades, is in Egyptian writing from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The text's apparent readers are students, tired of studying. It argues that their lot as scribes is not only useful, but far superior to that of the ordinary man. Scholars such as Helck think that the context was meant to be serious. The
Papyrus Anastasi I (late 2nd millennium BC) contains a satirical letter which first praises the virtues of its recipient, but then mocks the reader's meagre knowledge and achievements. •
Sebayt and
wisdom literature —
The Maxims of Ptahhotep are among the oldest pieces of
wisdom literature. It was compiled during the 24th century BC. •
Short story – short story started in Ancient Egypt around 2000 BC. Among the oldest known stories the "
Story of Sinuhe" and the "
Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor". • Written records — The Ancient Egyptian sentence found in the tomb of
Seth-Peribsen is the world's oldest known sentence
Sports . The archeologist conjectured as to the particular arrangement of the items found. with wall drawings depicting bowling being found in a royal Egyptian tomb dated to 5200 B.C. and miniature pins and balls in an Egyptian child's grave about 5200 B.C. Remnants of bowling balls were found among artifacts in ancient Egypt going back to the
Egyptian protodynastic period in 3200 BC. What is thought to be a child's game involving
porphyry (stone) balls, a miniature
trilithon, and nine
breccia-veined
alabaster vase-shaped figures—thought to resemble the more modern game of
skittles—was found in
Naqada, Egypt in 1895. • Equilibrium (sport) •
Fencing — The first historical evidence from archaeology of a fencing contest was found on the wall of a
temple within Egypt built at a time dated to approximately
1190 B.C. •
Gymnastics – Ancient Egyptians were the first to play gymnastics. They even developed three types of gymnastics:
rhythmic gymnastics, consecutive vault and
floor gymnastics. •
Handball — Drawings of this sport are found on the Saqqara tombs, five thousand years old. The ball was made of leather and stuffed with plant fibers or hay, or made of papyrus plants to be light and more durable. It was seldom used for more than one match. •
Tahtib — The oldest traces of tahtib were found on engravings from the archaeological site of
Abusir, an extensive necropolis of the
Old Kingdom period, located in the south-western suburbs of
Cairo. On some of the reliefs of the Pyramid of Sahure (V dynasty, c. 2500 BC); the images and explanatory captions are particularly precise and accurate in their depiction of what seems to be military training using sticks. Tahtib, with archery and wrestling, was then among the three disciplines of warfare taught to soldiers. •
Tug of war — This sport was practiced in the country side. •
Weightlifting — Weightlifting was first recorded in ancient Egypt. One method of weightlifting was lifting a heavy sack of sand with one hand and keep it high in a vertical position. The player had to hold that sack of sand for some time and stay in the same position. This rule is still applied in the modern weightlifting. •
Boiled eggs — In
Thebes, Egypt, the tomb of Haremhab, dating to approximately 1420 BCE, shows a depiction of a man carrying bowls of
ostrich eggs and other large eggs, presumably those of the
pelican, as offerings. In ancient Rome, eggs were preserved using a number of methods and meals often started with an egg course. •
Egyptian cheese — Archaeological evidence for making
cheese in Egypt goes back about 5,000 years. In 2018, archeologists from
Cairo University and the
University of Catania reported the discovery of the oldest known cheese from
Egypt. Discovered in the
Saqqara necropolis, it is around 3200 years old. Earlier, remains identified as cheese were found in the funeral meal in an Egyptian tomb dating around 2900 BC. Visual evidence of
Egyptian cheesemaking was found in
Egyptian tomb murals in approximately 2000 BC. •
Foie gras and
force-feeding — The technique of gavage dates as far back as 2500 BC, when the ancient Egyptians began keeping birds for food and deliberately fattened the birds through force-feeding. Today, France is by far the largest producer and consumer of foie gras, though it is produced and consumed worldwide, particularly in other European nations, the United States, and China. •
Frying — Frying is believed to have first appeared in the ancient Egyptian
kitchen, during the
Old Kingdom, around 2500 BCE. •
Hardtack and
biscuits — versions using various grains date back to
Ancient Rome, and as far back as Ancient Egypt. •
Lettuce – Lettuce was first cultivated in ancient Egypt for the production of oil from its seeds. This plant was probably selectively bred by the Egyptians into a plant grown for its edible leaves, with evidence of its cultivation appearing as early as 2680 BC. Lettuce was considered a sacred plant of the reproduction god
Min, and it was carried during his festivals and placed near his images. The plant was thought to help the god "perform the sexual act untiringly." Its use in religious ceremonies resulted in the creation of many images in tombs and wall paintings. The cultivated variety appears to have been about tall and resembled a large version of the modern
romaine lettuce. These upright lettuces were developed by the Egyptians and passed to the Greeks, who in turn shared them with the Romans. •
Marshmallows — The first marshmallows were produced in Egypt around 2000 B.c. and were made by mixing Mallow sap, honey, grains and baked into cakes. Marshmallows were only served to the
Gods of Ancient Egypt and
pharaohs, as a candy or a dessert. •
Pies – Early pies were in the form of flat, round or freeform crusty cakes called
galettes consisting of a crust of ground
oats, wheat,
rye, or
barley containing
honey inside. These galettes developed into a form of early sweet pastry or
desserts, evidence of which can be found on the tomb walls of the
Pharaoh Ramesses II, who ruled from 1304 to 1237 BC, located in the
Valley of the Kings. • Smy – thickened milk documented as existent in ancient Egypt. •
Yeast — The earliest definite records of yeast come from Ancient Egypt.
Clothing and cosmetics •
Flip-flops — Thong sandals have been worn for thousands of years, dating back to pictures of them in
ancient Egyptian murals from 4,000 BC. Ancient Egyptian sandals were made from papyrus and palm leaves. •
Gloves – Depicted in an Egyptian tomb dating to the
5th dynasty. •
Hair gel — Analysis of
ancient Egyptian mummies has shown that they styled their hair using a fat-based
gel. The researchers behind the analysis say that the Egyptians used the product to ensure that their style stayed in place in both life and death. Natalie McCreesh, an archaeological scientist from the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at the
University of Manchester, England, and her colleagues studied hair samples taken from 18 mummies. The oldest is approximately 3,500 years old, but most were excavated from a cemetery in the Dakhleh Oasis in the
Western Desert and date from
Greco-Roman times, around 2,300 years ago. •
Hairpin — Hairpins made of metal,
ivory,
bronze, carved wood, etc. were used in
ancient Egypt for securing decorated
hairstyles. Such hairpins suggest, as graves show, that many were luxury objects among the Egyptians and later the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans. •
Henna and
hair dye — Ancient Egyptian,
Ahmose-Henuttamehu (17th Dynasty, 1574 BCE): was probably a daughter of
Seqenenre Tao and
Ahmose Inhapy: Smith reports that the mummy of Henuttamehu's own hair had been dyed a bright red at the sides, probably with henna. •
High-heeled shoe — Paintings circa 3,500 BC. show images of men and women wearing high-heeled shoes. High-heeled shoes was also used by butchers to make them move easily over the dead animals. •
Kohl — Worn during
Naqada III era (c. 3100 BCE) by
Egyptians of all social classes, originally as protection against eye ailments. •
Liniment — made from
castor oil. •
Shirt – The world's oldest preserved garment, discovered by
Flinders Petrie, is a "highly sophisticated" linen shirt from a First Dynasty Egyptian tomb at
Tarkan, dated to c. 3000 BC: "the shoulders and sleeves have been finely pleated to give form-fitting trimness while allowing the wearer room to move. The small fringe formed during weaving along one edge of the cloth has been placed by the designer to decorate the neck opening and side seam." •
Umbrella — the earliest known parasols in
Ancient Egyptian art date back to the
Fifth Dynasty, around 2450 BC. The parasol is found in various shapes. In some instances it is depicted as a
flabellum, a fan of
palm-leaves or coloured feathers fixed on a long handle, resembling those now carried behind the Pope in processions.
Others , circa 1321 BC •
Alphabet — The history of the alphabet started in
ancient Egypt. Egyptian writing had a set of some
24 hieroglyphs that are called uniliterals, to represent syllables that begin with a single
consonant of their language, plus a vowel (or no vowel) to be supplied by the native speaker. These glyphs were used as pronunciation guides for
logograms, to write grammatical inflections, and, later, to transcribe loan words and foreign names. In the
Middle Bronze Age, an apparently "alphabetic" system known as the
Proto-Sinaitic script appears in Egyptian turquoise mines in the
Sinai Peninsula dated to circa the 15th century BC, apparently left by Canaanite workers. In 1999, John and Deborah Darnell discovered an even earlier version of this first alphabet at Wadi el-Hol dated to circa 1800 BC and showing evidence of having been adapted from specific forms of Egyptian hieroglyphs that could be dated to circa 2000 BC, strongly suggesting that the first alphabet had been developed about that time. Based on letter appearances and names, it is believed to be based on Egyptian hieroglyphs. This script had no characters representing vowels, although originally it probably was a syllabary, but unneeded symbols were discarded. •
Board games /
Senet — Senet, found in
Predynastic and
First Dynasty burials of Egypt, c. 3500 BC and 3100 BC respectively, is the oldest board game known to have existed. Senet was pictured in a
fresco found in Merknera's tomb (3300–2700 BC). •
Egyptian hieroglyphs —
Hieroglyphic symbol systems developed in the second half of the 4th millennium BC, such as the clay labels of a
Predynastic ruler called "
Scorpion I" (
Naqada IIIA period, c. 33rd century BC) recovered at
Abydos (modern
Umm el-Qa'ab) in 1998 or the
Narmer Palette (c. 31st century BC). •
Hieratic — Hieratic developed as a cursive form of
hieroglyphic script in the
Naqada III period, roughly 3200–3000 BCE. •
Histiography and
King lists – The pharaohs of Egypt used to glorify their ancestors. The
Den seal impressions is the oldest
King list in the world dating to 3000 BC. The
Palermo Stone is one of seven surviving fragments of a
stele known as the Royal Annals of the
Old Kingdom of
Ancient Egypt. The stele contained a list of the kings of Egypt from the
First Dynasty (~3150–2890 BCE) through to the early part of the
Fifth Dynasty (approx 2392–2283 BCE) and noted significant events in each year of their reigns. It was probably made during the Fifth Dynasty. These inscriptions are considered as the oldest History studies. •
Logbooks – The
Diary of Merer (
Papyrus Jarf A and B) is the name for
papyrus logbooks written over 4,500 years ago that record the daily activities of stone transportation from the
Tura limestone quarry to and from
Giza during the
4th Dynasty. They are the oldest known papyri with text. The text was found in 2013 by a French mission under the direction of archaeologists
Pierre Tallet of
Paris-Sorbonne University and Gregory Marouard in a cave in
Wadi al-Jarf on the
Red Sea coast. •
Mehen — Evidence of the game of Mehen is found from the
Predynastic period dating from approximately 3000 BC and continues until the end of the
Old Kingdom, around 2300 BC. •
Monotheism — The earliest known instance of monotheism appeared in 14th century BC Egypt during the reign of
Akhenaten. •
School – Perhaps the earliest formal school was developed in Egypt's Middle Kingdom under the direction of Kheti, treasurer to
Mentuhotep II (2061–2010 BC). •
Sick leave — Already in 1500 BCE, at least some of the workers who built the tombs of Egyptian
pharaohs received paid sick leave as well as state-supported health care., with the oldest known depiction of vexilloids. • Strike action – The first historically certain account of strike action was towards the end of the
20th Dynasty, under Pharaoh
Ramses III in
ancient Egypt on 14 November in 1152 BC. The artisans of the Royal Necropolis at
Deir el-Medina walked off their jobs because they had not been paid. •
Tobacco pipe •
Vexilloid — The oldest known vexilloids appear as depictions on Egyptian pottery from the
Gerzeh culture and on the reverse of the
Narmer Palette. These vexilloids were symbols of the
nomes of pre-dynastic Egypt. •
Writing – writing first arose in Egypt around 3300 BC, contemporaneous with Mesopotamia or may predate it. , carbon-dated to circa 3400–3200 BC and among the earliest form of writing in Egypt. They are virtually similar to contemporary clay tags from
Uruk,
Mesopotamia. == Graeco-Roman era ==