THE ART AND

SCIENCE

ANCIENT EGPYT

O

F

ZACHARY KING

ASHLEIGH PANAGIOTOU

TABLET OF CONTENTS

EGYPT

THE NILE RIVER

GEOGRAPHY

PYRAMIDS

HIEROGLYPHS

SPHINX

TOMBS

GRAVE ROBBERS

BUILDING THE PYRAMIDS

MUMMIES

BURRIED TREASURE

ANIMALS

MUMMY PAPER

SARCOPHAGI

EGYPTIAN RELIGION

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

TOMB ART

EMBALMING

PAPYRUS

ARCHAEOLOGY

IMAGE CREDITS

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

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For three thousand years, the

power of the pharaohs

stretched from the Mediterra-

nean Sea to Lake Victoria, and

the conquests of the Egyptian

people kept a steady stream of

gold, slaves, knowledge, and

goods flowing into Cairo, Nai-

robi, Thebes, Memphis, and Al-

exandria. Each of these cities

blossomed into fountains of a

rich culture that not even a mil-

lennium of nature’s wrath could

destroy. Every year, new dis-

coveries crop up along the Nile

River that astound scientists:

new exam-

ples of ancient script, tombs

full of sophisticated ritual im-

plements, incredibly accurate

lunar calendars, and countless

other pieces of evidence that

show the artistic and scientific

brilliance of the Egyptian race.

This book will discuss the his-

tory of the Old, Mid-

dle, and New king-

doms, and how

they connect

the great leaps

of scholarly

and aesthetic

prowess in

Ancient Egypt.

An Introduction to Background Information

E G Y P T

~1~

The Nile River is the longest river in the world. It flows through

Egypt and into the Mediterranean Sea. The tributary of Lake Vic-

toria in Africa, the Kagera River is considered the water source for

the Nile River.

Most ancient Egyptians lived near the banks on the river. It allowed

them to fish and find food while providing them with fertile soil to

grow food. Because of the desert areas of Egypt, rainfall was very

rare. Every year during the summer, because of huge amounts of

rainfall in other areas of Egypt, the Nile River flooded. After the

floods were gone, black silt lines the sides of the river. The only

place the Egyptians could grow crops was in the fertile soil.

The Egyptians used the river for many other purposes. Reeds,

called papyrus, grew on the banks and were used to build boats

and make paper. Many archaeologists believe that the people used

the Nile to transport the huge stones that make up the pyramids.

The oceans, rivers and other water sources are still widely used to-

day for some of the same rea-

sons the Egyptians used them

The Nile River

This artifact was found in a

tomb inside one of the pyra-

mids. Many of the Egyptians’

boats looked a lot like this one.

They were used to fish, trans-

port goods, and many other

things.

~2~

Egypt is located in Northern Africa, but also includes the Sinai Pen-

insula which connects it to Asia. The Gaza Strip, Libya, Israel, Su-

dan and the Red and Mediterranean seas border the republic.

Egypt is about 386,659 square miles. That’s about 37 times the

size of Massachusetts!

Most land in Egypt is desert, which caused periods of drought,

heat, wind and sandstorms. The Nile River runs through the mid-

dle of Egypt and was a huge part of Egyptian Civilization.

Geography

~3~

PYRAMIDS

~4~

If you were a pharaoh in ancient Egypt, chances are that you would be

buried in a pyramid. When a pharaoh died, the people of Ancient Egypt

believed that awful things would happen to Egypt if they did not care for

the body properly. Ancient Egyptians thought that part of a king’s spirit

stayed in his body for ever after death. To ensure that the spirit would be

cared for, the people built huge tombs, often in the shape of mounds or

pyramids. The kings and queens were buried with valuable possessions

like furniture, jewelry and pottery. Food was given to them as offerings

long after their deaths. Some people were even buried with dolls that rep-

resented their servants.

Some archaeologists today believe

that the Egyptians thought the

shape of the pyramids represented

the rays of the sun. Most of the

118 pyramids that have been dis-

covered had very smooth and re-

flective limestone coverings so that

they would appear to shine from a

distance. All of the pyramids were

built on the West side of the Nile

River. The sun sets in the West so

many Egyptians connected the sun-

set to a place of the dead.

The Great Pyramid of Giza has a

few names, but is the largest and

the oldest of the pyramids of Giza.

Hieroglyphics The English language only uses 26 letters to write every

word in the language. The Egyptians had over 2,000 hiero-

glyphics to write with. Unlike in English where letters are

used to make words for objects, each object in Egyptian life

had a hieroglyphic character. Many of the characters are

easy to figure out because they look like what they are.

For everything else in Egypt that didn’t have a particular

character, the alphabet was used. Characters were used to

spell out any word the person needed. When you were

younger, you may have learned about pairs of letters that

are commonly seen with each other. The Egyptians com-

bined some symbols to create new symbols for pairs of let-

ters. For numbers, the people of Egypt used units of 10,

but each unit of 10 had a special symbol.

Doesn’t the English alphabet seem easy now?

Try writing your

name in hiero-

glyphics! How

did you do?

~5~

The Sphinx “What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the after-

noon, and three legs in the evening? “~The Riddle of the Sphinx

The answer is a human being!

The only image more Egyptian than the pyramids is the serene and

monolithic face of the great Sphinx. Constructed in 2535 BCE by

the great pharaoh Khafra, this great sculpture has been an enigma

as far back as modern history can go. Some scientists hypothesize

that it was constructed in honor of a very old solar goddess, and

others seem to agree that it was simply a gigantic stone guardian

meant to protect the sacred land around Giza. What we do know

about the Great Sphinx is very intriguing—the entirety of the great

body and face were once covered in paint made from local plants

and minerals. Trace elements of the key ingredients in modern day

paints (like ochre, tan, and bright red) have been found using

highly intricate surveying techniques, and evidence even suggests

that the Sphinx was once inside a great temple! Another interesting

fact is that another pharaoh, Thutmose IV, had the statue rededi-

cated to the sun god, Ra, when he was attempting to conform

Egyptian religion under one god (Ra). Scientists discovered this

when they analyzed the tool tracks on several more modern steles

on the site and found them to be much more advanced than the

tools used on the rest of the Sphinx and Pyramids. Ironically, as

guardian of one of the most famous riddles in history, the statue its

self is remarkably adept at keeping is secrets...

~6~

Building the Pyramids

Contrary to popular belief, the people who built the pyramids were not

always slaves. Many of the builders were regular people like yourself

or your parents! They worked for the king and his supervisors for a

period of time, or as their regular day to day job.

Each block in a pyramid weighs from 2-5 tons! Since the people

weren’t super-strong humans, they needed a way to move them.

Many people think that the blocks were moved by placing them on

lengths of wood which were then pulled by the workers. Some of the

blocks were transported along the Nile River. When the time came lift

the blocks up when they were

building the pyramids, ar-

chaeologists believe that the

people used ramps to slide

them up.

Look how small

this man looks

next to some

blocks of a pyra-

mid!

~7~

Mummies The Ancient Egyptian art mummification is probably the best known characteristic of that society, and it has puzzled ar-chaeologists since before the time of Howard Carter. Carter

may have unearthed one of the most famous mummies of all time, but he did not know exactly what he had discovered. In fact, none of the hundreds of people who have found mum-mies know just what is keeping the corpse inside the wrap-pings together. Scientists may have some idea, but we will never know exactly how the Egyptians made mummies.

The first thing that anyone

who knows anything

about mummies knows

is that they are all fa-

mous kings. Wrong!

Back in the 1800s and even 1700s,

there were mummies

everywhere! The only

famous dead bodies

you ever hear about

are the kings be-

cause of the lavish

ways in which they

were decorated—

golden ships, scep-

ters made from

rare woods, and even gem encrusted

headgear. In this section,

we will talk about the

decoration on sar-

cophaguses, buried

treasures, King Tut,

and even some fun facts about mum-

mies that you may

have never heard!

Q: What was paper

made from during short-

ages in the 1800s?

~8~

SARCOPHAGI

Sarcophagus is simply a word

derived from the Greek word for

“flesh eater,” but today it is

taken to mean a box rather like

a coffin, and it is most often

found in the shape of the body

inside it. The Egyptians used

these as a part of their complex

embalming process, and, for

the most part, the glorified

coffins of pharaohs were

encrusted with blue gems

and with gold.

These two materi-

als were very rare in

ancient Egypt, and

they also played and

important symbolic

role by symbolizing

the Nile River and

royalty. Over the

course of Egypt’s

long history, these

boxes were con-

structed from ce-

ramics, metals,

wood, and even

stone, and the decision to con-

struct the sarcophagus from one

of these materials was not

purely aesthetic. Coffin builders

needed to have a great deal of

data to build the perfect

eternal resting place—the acidity

of the burial soil, the relative

moisture in the area, and how

long the coffin would have to

last before it was used. Clearly,

the funeral planners of old were

very scientific when it came to

the details. The special clay that

priests used to seal the sar-

cophagi also served a dou-

ble purpose. It held the

intricate runes that the

mystics believed would

keep the body from

crumbling to dust, and

it also formed a seal

that moisture could

not penetrate. Ironi-

cally, it did exactly

what the Egyptians

thought that it

would, but for the

wrong reasons! Fur-

thermore, none of

the objects sur-

rounding the de-

ceased are meaning-

less: the crossed cane and reed

whip (flail and crook) for maj-

esty; the eagle and eye on the

crown for healing; the eagle

wings for rebirth and the god

Ra; the false beard for

The golden sarcophagus of the most

famous pharaoh of all time—

Tutankhamen.

~9~

~10~

TOMBS The mastaba was the earliest form of Egyptian tombs. These were sin-

gle level structures built with bricks made from mud. Years later, the

people started to build pyramids. These mammoth structures were the

burial places of kings. One of these pyramids contains more than

2,300,000 stones and is 754 feet on each side– the equivalent of 2

football fields! The pyramids were made to last forever to protect the

spirit of the kind buried inside. These early pyramids had no decora-

tions despite their mammoth size.

Pyramids lost popularity in later kingdoms. Underground tombs soon

become the normal burial place of kings. They were decorated with

paintings on the walls, most of which were scenes from the Book of the

Dead. Each tomb looked different and was unique to the individual

buried there. The underground tombs gained in popularity after many

pyramids and other above ground tombs were attractions for grave

robbers.

Noblemen and kings were not the only people in Egypt to be buried in

tombs. Even the working class built decorated tombs for their people

with their varying skills.

The Pyramids of Ghiza were built

as tombs for kings. They were

built by workers in the kingdom

and were made to last forever so

the king’s spirit could live on for-

ever.

Egyptian gods and religion were what

motivated this ancient race to per-

form all of the great deeds they did,

and, surprisingly, the entire system of

religion is based in science. The

power of the pharaoh came from his

supposed connection to the gods, and

first among his ―powers‖ was his abil-

ity to make the Nile River flood every

year. In fact, the basis of all of the re-

birth, life, death, and burial traditions

all have their roots in this annual

flood of the river. Also, the fact that

local wildlife that was reflected in

their gods shows that the Egyptians

knew that the animals and the water

they lived near held the key to the

existence of their civilization. Many

people will remark that Egyptian cul-

ture and religion were very symbolic,

and it is these symbols that tell ar-

chaeologists just how advanced the

ancients were. Without a proper un-

derstanding of the natural world

around them, why would they have

attributed so much power to Ra, the

god of the Sun, and to the pharaoh,

flooder of the Nile, if they did not un-

derstand the very real power behind

both of these unstoppable natural

forces.

Egyptian Religion

~11~

The Book of the Dead is a land-

mark in the cultural history of an-

cient Egypt. Not only is it a huge

compilation of mythical literature,

but it is also the pinnacle of the

Egyptian written language. Each

section is meticulously transcribed

in a long-lasting ink derived from

plants along the Nile, and the

color has likewise been taken

from native plants. Not only were

both the parchment

and the inks engi-

neered to last as long

as possible (because

the deceased were go-

ing to be dead for a

long time), but the pic-

tures show an ex-

tremely detailed ac-

count of one of the

only ancient Egyptian

stories that exist to-

day. The weighing of

the heart against a

feather, the demons

threatening to eat the

soul of the dead, and

the personal interview with Anu-

bis, god of the underworld are all

depicted in a variety of different

styles throughout the Old, Middle,

and New Kingdoms. This work is

not only valuable to art historians,

but it is also very telling of the

state of Egyptian technology. Sci-

entists can trace the development

of the written language by com-

paring different editions of the

text found in the

pyramids at Giza, the

great tomb of Ramses

III, and even the

tombs of minor noble-

men and peasants.

The medium of the

text is also useful to

scholars as it also

shows the rapid de-

velopment of material

science in the ancient

world: clay, stone,

and then papyrus—

one of the most im-

portant scientific ad-

vances pioneered by The book of the dead found in

the tombs of Luxor, Egypt. Paint

on clay tablet.

~12~

For the Egyptians, embalming was their

crowning glory. Without this technique,

they would have been unable to make

their mummies, and we would know very

little about the Egyptian people. However,

this way of preserving corpses shows us a

great deal about the advances in medicine

the ancients made. First of all, the organs

were removed from the body and the blood

was replaced with preservatives, some-

thing that modern-day embalmers learned

from the Egyptians! The fleshy parts of the body

like the intestines and other ―useless‖ things

were all tossed out and replaced with straw.

They did all of these things to make sure that

there was hardly anything left to rot away

other than the skin, which they could coat

in layers of resin and chemicals—a process

that tanners would be familiar with. As you

can see, the Egyptians tell us a huge amount

with their embalming, like how to preserve

meat, preserve the structure of once living

things, and even make sweet-smelling leather!

EMBALMING

The clay jars pictures above, canopic jars, were used to store the organs of the pharaoh so that he

would be able to have fresh, preserved, and whole organs once he reached the afterlife.

~13~

Most of the ancient relics we have from ancient

Egypt come from tombs, and this is a testament to

the technology of the era. For the most part, the

decorations were colored with gold or gems be-

cause paints could not stand the test of time. The

primary building material was stone for very much

the same reason; mediums like wood or clay

tended to break down. The Egyptian priests were

very concerned about the durability of the gifts

their charges were taking into the afterlife with

them, and so they expended a great deal of time

methodically searching for the materials that were

best suited for the 3000 year jour-

ney to paradise and beyond.

The best examples that ar-

chaeologist have today of

buried Egyptian treasure is

from the tomb of King Tutankhamen be-

cause his tomb was relatively undis-

turbed. This means that many of the

beautifully crafted arti-

facts from this snapshot

in time are in pristine

condition and we can

still marvel at the detail

This stele, recovered

from King Tut’s tomb, is

coated in gold and bears

several regal symbols

Another relic from Tut’s

tomb, this chair is a rep-

lica of the throne for Tut

in the afterlife.

~14~

PAPYRUS A HISTORY OF PAPER

Prehistor ic hunter -

gathers use marks on

bone to track the phases

of the moon

Cuneiform, invented by

the Assyrians, is first

written on clay and stone

tablets

Ancient Egyptians invent

papyrus, a paper made

from a Nile reed called

papyrus

Ancient Chinese invent

paper from wood pulp

Indus Valley civilizations

use elephant droppings

and grass to make crude

paper

Parchment, dried animal

skin, makes its debut in

Europe

The printing press makes

written works more

available

Disposal of rags (the ma-

terial used fro paper) is

made illegal in the US

due to shortages

And now, WB Mason can

deliver thousands of

years worth of science on

your doorstep by the

crate full!

Although it is never given as much press

(ha ha) as it should, papyrus was a scien-

tific revolution unto its self. Before it was

invented, everything written was written

on either clay tablets or hunks of stone.

Both of those two mediums are extremely

time consuming to make and write on,

and so official dispatches could be quite a

hassle. Papyrus signaled the birth of

cheap writing materials, and so it could

be used for simple messages from person

to person instead of either relying on a

messenger to get the whole message cor-

rect or a patient and expensive-to-train

mason. This crude form of paper also al-

lowed the privilege of writing to some-

what enter the mainstream. Whether a

language is easy to learn or not does not

matter when the public has to hire a

stonemason whenever it wants to write

something down.

All things considered, the invention of pa-

pyrus was one of the things that made

Egypt great: its people could communi-

cate with relative ease, its scribes could

produce written works in a much more

timely manner, and its scientists could

(and still can) be renowned for the birth

of one of the things that makes it so soci-

ety can function every day.

~15~

Animals

The Egyptians kept pets like cats, dogs,

monkeys and various birds. Many of the

paintings inside tombs in Egypt depict the

animals and creatures of the land. Many

pets are depicted near their deceased own-

ers or at times statues of pets were buried

with the person. Pets were preserved so

that, like humans, they could live on in the

afterlife.

Not only did animals exist in tombs in the

form of art, but also in mummy form.

Mummification was not reserved to people

and some animals have been found mum-

mified in the tombs with their owners.

Some pets were given funerals and burials

that rivaled those of humans.

This dog was mummi-

fied and buried in a

tomb!

~16~

~17~

Egyptian Medicine

If you could choose an ancient civilization to fall ill in, Egypt

wouldn’t be a bad place to do so. Many of the healers in Egypt

were actually quite skilled in comparison to others practicing

medicine at the same time. Because the Egyptians were very reli-

gious, any medicine that was administered was also accompanied

with prayers to the goddess of healing. Their medicines normally

consisted of herbs and other things from their surroundings.

Preventative medicine was popular with the ancient people in

Egypt. Along with prayers and food, amulets were worn to pre-

vent certain diseases and ailments. The amulets were commonly

small statues of animals worn as rings, bracelets and necklaces.

Archaeologists have been romanticized by

such works of fiction as Indiana Jones and

Jurassic Park, but the reality is, archae-

ology is extremely scientific and time-

consuming. If you have your heart set on

becoming an archaeologist, you’ve got to

be able to work with the latest in scientific

breakthroughs like ground-penetrating ra-

dar, pollen analysis, and radio-argon dat-

ing as well as the most basic of tools, like

the shovel, pic, and brush. In the days of

Howard Carter, people could hack away at sandstone in search of gold, but

nowadays, it takes a qualified professional to do a scientific survey of both

sites and recovered artifacts. Using

some of the techniques mentioned

above, scientists can pinpoint ex-

actly when a papyrus scroll was

made or where a mysterious

wooden anchor originated. All of

these clues form an image of an-

cient Egyptian society in which we

can see the true artistic and scien-

tific might of this old, prolific, and

proud civilization. ~18~

Mummy Paper

Around 1855, America was experiencing a

paper shortage because they could not

find enough linen to make the amount

they needed. Americans knew about

mummies in Egypt and a few were parts

of exhibits in museums. Cargo records of

ships around that time started to show

large amounts of rags from Egypt being

imported. Articles even appeared in periodicals

about business men in Egypt exporting mum-

mies from the catacombs to be converted to

pulp for paper.

There are even some reports that the rags from

mummies were not always ideal because of the

oils they were treated with. The paper could

become discolored because of this.

Thankfully, paper is not made of wood pulp.

Fear not, that math paper you just finished has

never been near a dead body! What kind of underwear does a mummy wear?

Fruit of the Tombs!

~19~

~20~

Mummies in America

Around the 1850s, people started im-

porting mummies into America. Now,

mummies appear in many museums so

most people have seen one in their

lives, but to the people in America they

were seeing them for the first time ever.

They were displayed in museums, li-

braries and other public places, includ-

ing storefronts where some people were

allowed to touch them.

New evidence has shown that mummies

were used for paper, brown paint known

as ―mummy brown‖, and that some

were even ground up and used as fertil-

izer.

The tombs of the rich pharaohs were

filled with their treasures and jewelry.

The artifacts in the tombs were ex-

ported to America and sold to the rich.

Now, mummies are still imported to

America but are used for different pur-

poses. Archaeologists are finding out

more about ancient civilizations using

new scientific techniques.

Scientists are using mummies,

like this one, to find out morea

bout people of the past. They use

new techniques like this CT scan

machine to look at mummies in

ways they could not years ago.

Image Credits

Egypt

http://kingtut.org

http://www.travelegypt.com

The Nile River

http://www.sfsu.edu/

http://www.sciencephoto.com

Geography

http://mappery.com/

http://6cancientegypt1.pbworks.com/

Pyramids

http://totalfreewallpapers.co.cc/

Hieroglyphs

http://www.virtual-egypt.com/

http://www.sciencephoto.

The Sphinx

http://openerofways.com

Building the Pyramids

http://www.worldtravelattractions.com

http://www.arts.kuleuven.be/

Mummies

http://kingtut.org

Sarcophagi

http://kingtut.org

Tombs

http://sciencephoto.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

Egyptian Religion

http://faqs.org

The Book of the Dead

http://multi.stanford.edu

Embalming

http://democraticunderground.org

http://www.sciencephotolibrary.org

Buried Treasure

http://www.travelegypt.com

http://democraticunderground.org

Papyrus

http://legacy.earlham.edu/

Animals

http://sciencephoto.com/

Egyptian Medicine

http://www.bahariyaoasis.com/

Archaeology

http://historicjamestowne.org

http://www.archaeologydiscoveries.com

Mummy paper

http://sciencephoto.com

Mummies in America

http://sciencephoto.com

~21~

About the Authors

Zachary King

Ashleigh Panagiotou

Ashleigh is also a Junior at the Mass

Academy for Math and Science. In her

free time, she likes to ski, read, and

hang out with her friends.

Zachary is a Junior at the Mass Acad-

emy for Math and Science, and when

he is not constructing FIRST Team

467’s robot, he is probably playing ul-

timate Frisbee or trying to rid the

world of really awful fan fiction.