Top 15 Egyptian Inventions and Innovations 15. Bowling - A new bowling alley has opened for public use, just outside of Narmoutheos. This new sport is a joy for the whole family, and kids especially love it! The rules are as follows: you aim for a hole at the end of you lane, and roll heavy stone balls of various sizes down the lane in hopes of getting your ball in the hole. The lanes are about 13 feet long and 8 inches wide, so anyone can play. 14. Sickle - The sickle, or curved blade used for cutting, has aided Egyptian farmers immensely. Harvesting grain, including wheat and barley, is a strenuous process that uses a lot of handy work. The sickle improves the harvesting process and makes picking wheat much easier. This is especially helpful in Egypt as the Nile River has proved to be a valuable asset, providing yearly floods and rich fertile soil for producing crops. Other farming tools include wooden hoes, which are used to dig pits, as well as dikes, which are large walls of mud to keep water flow contained. 13. Door Locks - Have you ever worried about who may sneak into your house at night? Thanks to the Egyptians, locked doors are now a valuable luxury. The newest door locks contain a hollowed-out bolt connected to an intricate system of pins. When the correct key is inserted, the pins rise, and the door opens. You will never again have to worry about being robbed or murdered. Door locks do have their drawbacks as the average size per door lock is actually 2 feet. These new locks are sure to keep your house secure, and are said to be even more protective than the locks developed by the Romans, which use a simple spring design and are fairly easy to pick. 12. Shaving and Cutting Hair - The Egyptians are one of the first societies to be concerned about hair, and they consider hair extremely insanitary. For this reason, they cut their hair and shaved their entire bodies regularly. The Egyptians have created the first shaving implements, including a set of sharp stone blades with wooden handles. There is also now the Barbering profession, though only the wealthy can afford to use a barber. Although the Egyptians dislike hair greatly, they have a fascination for fake beards, with various shapes that depict their social class. 11. Makeup and Paint – Both male and female Egyptians are known to be highly hygienic and they place great importance on the way they look. They wear unique and elaborate eye makeup and oils that soften their skin and prevent sun damage. The more color worn by an Egyptian, the higher their social ranking. Statues of gods and goddesses also wear makeup. Egyptians create makeup, paint, and dye by combining soot with minerals to create colored pastes. Egyptians wear makeup for cosmetic, medical, religious and traditional reasons. 10. Construction Tools – The Egyptians are the first builders and well-known for their construction skills; they are recognized for building some of world’s most magnificent structures including the great pyramids and the Sphinx. They create extravagant pyramids and temples using the simplest tools, including picks, drills, chisels, hammers, pounder stones, ramps, and saws. These tools were made of copper, bronze, and basalt, which are made by metal workers all across Egypt. 9. Boats and Sails - The first boats that the Egyptians developed were rafts, made from stalks of papyrus that were tied together. They are used on the Nile for trading and transportation. These boats are also used for fishing and pleasure. Papyrus is used because of the scarcity of wood and the ease of construction. Newly invented sails catch the wind and move boats at a much quicker pace, and the boats have started to be made from wood. This aids with the transportation of heavy freight and provisioning for war. 8. Fishing Tools - Hunting and breeding animals has become difficult, for the Egyptians. Aside from staples and vegetables, the poor can no longer afford meat. Fish is cheap and plentiful, and fishermen use tools such as nets, traps, spears, and harpoons to catch different species of fish in the Nile River. Hooks are also made from cheap metal and bones. Fisherman catch different species of fish in the Nile including tilapia, elephant fish, perch, catfish and eels. 7. Toothpaste and Breath Mints - The Egyptians love to conceal the awful smell that comes from our mouths. Bad breath is a symbol of poor dental health and low income. Although the Egyptians have dentists, they cannot fix teeth that have begun to rot and produce a stench. In order to deal with this problem, the newly created mints were invented which contain a combination of frankincense, myrrh, and cinnamon honey, and are sucked to relieve the sickly odors. 6. Shadoof - Farming, cultivation, and raising livestock has become a common practice in Egpyt. Dikes and irrigation ditches are the most widespread methods of controlling and bringing in water. The Shadoof has been invented to bring canal water to the fields. The Shadoof is a long balancing pole with a weight on one side and a bucket on the other. The bucket fills with water and is raised and brought to the fields. 5. Plough - This tool has been around for hundreds of years, although it has proven to be quite ineffective. The newest Egyptian ploughs are hooked to oxen and are allow farmers to dig deeper into the ground than ever before. The innovated plough has revolutionized farming in Egypt, and has arguably made Egyptian farming easier than any other society today. It has enabled the Egyptians to progress major advancements in agriculture. 4. Scribal Palates and Kalamos - As Egyptian writing is advancing and becoming more complex, the sons of wealthy families are becoming scribes for reading and writing. Only around 1% of the population in Egypt is literate. A scribe’s main tool is the Kalamos, which is a pen that is made from a short reed. Different sized reeds are used for varying thicknesses. Scribal palates, inkwells, and brushes are other tools used by the scribes. They write on papyrus and parchment which are made from reeds, parchment and animal hide respectively. 3. Irrigation – The Egyptians discovered the first methods of irrigation and the construction of canals was a major innovation of the time. During the Nile River’s yearly floods, water had to be directed and brought to distant fields and highland. Egyptians thought to surround indentions that would fill with water, with mud dams to hold the water. Canals were dug from these basins and carried water to the fields. This proved useful so that water could be brought to land that wasn’t close to the river and farmers could harvest crops more frequently. 2. Hieroglyphics and Hieratic – Have you seen any of the Hieroglyphics found on the walls of our temples, stone, pottery, ivory and papyrus? Did you know that hieroglyphics is the earliest formal writing system comprised of symbols and primarily used by kings? They are written in rows and columns and read from top to bottom. More than 700 symbols are used to represent people, objects and ideas and are combined to form words. The creation of Hieroglyphics by the Egyptians has distinguished them from other societies and allowed them to record the events of their lives and track important discoveries. Hieratic is now used instead of Hieroglyphics for writing documents as it is simpler and easier to write. 1. Calendars and Clocks – The Egyptians invented the 365-day calendar which correlates with the flood cycle of the Nile and advises farmers when they can best irrigate their land. Did you know that the calendar allows us to track our three important seasons: Spring (the Nile River floods), Winter (the land reappears from under water) and Summer (the dry period)? The calendar is also used for astrology. The Egyptians also discovered other ways to tell time with water clocks and sundials. Water clocks measure time by the flow of water and sundials measure time by using a vertical pole on a horizontal surface with marks and numbers around the clock’s edges.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 16:34:57 +0000