LESSON-2-STS.docx

The ancient Egyptian civilization began 5,000 years ago when people started building villages next to the River Nile in north-east Africa. It lasted for around 3,000 years. The river was an important source of water in a hot and dry desert landscape. It enabled the ancient Egyptians to grow crops li...

The ancient Egyptian civilization began 5,000 years ago when people started building villages next to the River Nile in north-east Africa. It lasted for around 3,000 years. The river was an important source of water in a hot and dry desert landscape. It enabled the ancient Egyptians to grow crops like wheat, barley, fruits and vegetables. Furthermore, they have established a lot in terms of infrastructure. Aside from Engineering technology, the Egyptians have contributed other practical things that the world now considers as essential. CONTRIBUTIONS THE PYRAMIDS The oldest pyramid was erected for King Zoser between 2667-2648 BC.The oldest pyramid was erected for King Zoser between 2667-2648 BC. In fact it is the first monumental stone building designed and constructed that we know of. WRITING Along with the Mesopotamians, the Egyptians were the first people to develop their language into a codified form of writing. All early forms of writing were pictograms -- pictures. All writing systems developed in this way but their original forms become lost as the pictures are refined into abstract forms. What is interesting about the Egyptians is that although their writing changed to the abstract form of Hieratic they deliberately preserved the hieroglyphic pictures in their original forms. PAPYRUS SHEETS Did you know that the pyramids were not built by slaves but by paid laborers? Ancient construction workers were a mix of skilled artisans and temporary hands, and some appear to have taken great pride in their craft. The idea that slaves built the pyramids was first conjured by the Greek historian Herodotus in the fifth century B.C., but most historians now dismiss it as myth. While the ancient Egyptians were certainly not averse to keeping slaves, they appear to have mostly used them as field hands and domestic servants (). Papyrus sheets are the earliest paper-like material -- all other civilizations used stone, clay tablets, animal hide, wood materials or wax as a writing surface. Papyrus was, for over 3000 years, the most important writing material in the ancient world. It was exported all around the Mediterranean and was widely used in the Roman Empire as well as the Byzantine Empire. Its use continued in Europe until the seventh century AD, when an embargo on exporting it forced the Europeans to use parchment. BLACK INK The Egyptians mixed vegetable gum, soot and bee wax to make black ink. They replaced soot with other materials such as ochre to make various colors. THE CALENDAR The Egyptians devised the solar calendar by recording the yearly reappearance of Sirius (the Dog Star) in the eastern sky. It was a fixed point which coincided with the yearly flooding of the Nile. Their calendar had 365 days and 12 months with 30 days in each month and an additional five festival days at the end of the year. However, they did not account for the additional fraction of a day and their calendar gradually became incorrect. Eventually Ptolemy III added one day to the 365 days every four years. THE OX-DRAWN PLOUGH Using the power of oxen to pull the plough revolutionized agriculture and modified versions of this Egyptian invention are still used by farmers in developing countries around the world. THE SICKLE The sickle is a curved blade used for cutting and harvesting grain, such as wheat and barley. IRRIGATION The Egyptians constructed canals and irrigation ditches to harness Nile River's yearly flood and bring water to distant fields. THE SHADOOF The Shadoof is a long balancing pole with a weight on one end and a bucket on the other. The bucket is filled with water and easily raised then emptied onto higher ground. CLOCKS In order to tell the time Egyptians invented two types of clock. Obelisks were used as sun clocks by noting how its shadow moved around its surface throughout the day. From the use of obelisks they identified the longest and shortest days of the year. An inscription in the tomb of the court official Amenemhet dating to the16th century BC shows a water clock made from a stone vessel with a tiny hole at the bottom which allowed water to dripped at a constant rate. The passage of hours could be measured from marks spaced at different levels. The priest at Karnak temple used a similar instrument at night to determine the correct hour to perform religious rites. SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS The Edwin Smith Papyrus shows the Egyptians invented medical surgery. It describes 48 surgical cases of injures of the head, neck, shoulders, breast and chest. It includes a list of instruments used during surgeries with instructions for the suturing of wounds using a needle and thread. This list includes lint, swabs, 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 rituals, those that could afford it had wigs made in various styles and set with perfumed beeswax. MUMMIFICATION The Egyptians were so expert at preserving the bodies of the dead that after thousands of years we know of the diseases they suffered such as arthritis, tuberculosis of the bone, gout, tooth decay, bladder stones, and gallstones; there is evidence, too, of the disease bilharziasis (schistosomiasis), caused by small, parasitic flatworms, which still exists in Egypt today. There seems to have been no syphilis or rickets. Did you know that It was common in ancient Greece to write manuscripts bi-directionally, meaning that one line would be written from left to right and the following line would be written from right to left. Just to make it doubly confusing, the letters were also mirrored from one line to the other. This was called boustrophedon text (https://www.factinate.com). ANCIENT GREECE Ancient Greece was born on the shores of the Aegean Sea about 4,000 years ago. In over a millennium it expanded to lands as far as west of Spain and Far East of India. There were collections of 1500 territories that acted as sovereign nation called City- States. Moreover, Ancient Greece acquired the 1^st^ large scale democracy which was developed in the city state of Athens. Greek empire established colonies overseas and it is well protected from foreign invaders such as the Persian Empire. City- States are united to defend their homeland (Example: LEONIDAS king of Sparta fought XEREX king of Persia). Soldiers are labeled as HEROES which inspired the creation of Olympics that celebrated PHYSICAL COMPETITION. The Greek empire contributed mainly on the arts and architecture, philosophy (reason, ethics, and natural law), language, and Alphabet. REASONS FOR DECLINE 1\. Greece was divided into city-states. Constant warring between the city states weakened Greece and made it difficult to unite against a common enemy like Rome. 2\. The poorer classes in Greece began to rebel against the aristocracy and the wealthy. 3\. The city-states of Ancient Greece had different governments and were constantly changing alliances. 4\. Greek colonies had a similar culture, but were not strong allies to Greece or any of the Greek city- states. CONTRIBUTIONS WATER MILL The water mill was used for metal shaping, agriculture, and milling. It originated from the Perachora wheel created in the third century BC in Greece and was invented by the contemporary Greek engineer Philo of Byzantium. ODOMETER The odometer measures the distance traveled by a vehicle such as a bicycle or automobile. It is mechanical in nature and slowly evolving into electro-mechanical with the rise of technology. Vitruvius first described the odometer as being used for measuring distance around 27 BC. Archimedes of Syracuse as its inventor used the odometer sometime around the First Punic War. Some historians also attribute its invention to Heron of Alexandria. ALARM CLOCK The ancient Greek's alarm clocks used large complicated mechanisms to time the alarm. They made use of water (or sometimes small stones or sand) that dropped into drums which sounded the alarm. Plato was believed to have utilized an alarm clock to signal the start of his lecture. His version used four water vessels lined up vertically. The upper vessel supplied the water which dropped to the vessel below it, which was set to be filled in a given time. After it was full, water was tapped off at a faster rate into the third vessel which would cause the expulsion of contained air, creating a whistling noise. Afterwards, this vessel would empty towards the bottom vessel for storage and reuse. CARTOGRAPHY Anaximander was one of the first pioneer cartographers to create a map of the world. He included all inhabited areas of the world in his map. The map appeared in tablet form and featured Ionia in the center. It was bounded on the east by the Caspian Sea and stretched to the Pillars of Hercules in the west. Middle Europe borders the map in the north while Ethiopia and the Nile feature at the southern end. OLYMPICS It was dedicated to the Olympian Gods. The game was for young men to show their physical qualities and to enforce the relationship between the various Greek cities. Only Greek men were allowed to participate in the Olympics but not women. There are three stages of the Olympic Games. The Isthmian Games (two years at the Isthmus of Corinth), Pythian Games (four years near Delphi), and Olympia (southwest of Greece which takes place every four years) ANCIENT ROME Beginning in the eighth century B.C., Ancient Rome grew from a small town on central Italy's Tiber River into an empire that at its peak encompassed most of continental Europe, Britain, much of western Asia, northern Africa and the Mediterranean islands. Among the many legacies of Roman dominance are the widespread use of the Romance languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian) derived from Latin, the modern Western alphabet and calendar and the emergence of Christianity as a major world religion. After 450 years as a republic, Rome became an empire in the wake of Julius Caesar's rise and fall in the first century B.C. The long and triumphant reign of its first emperor, Augustus, began a golden age of peace and prosperity; by contrast, the Roman Empire's decline and fall by the fifth century A.D. was one of the most dramatic implosions in the history of human civilization. CONTRIBUTIONS ARCHES Romans first found a way to set an arch on top of two tall pedestals such that it would span a walkway (and in many cases, even highways). These arches went on to become pivotal engineering constructions that laid the foundation for many of the subsequent structural highlights of ancient Rome. Many bridges were built upon these arches, and so were the aqueducts, sewers, amphitheaters, and even the great Colosseum. GRID- BASED CITIES Did you know that ancient Romans built dams that are still in use today? Amazingly, two Roman dams built in Spain are still in use after 1,900 years. These dams are noteworthy for their extraordinary height, which remained unsurpassed anywhere in the world until the Late Middle Ages (https://www.factinate.com/). It is characterized by a rectangle or a square in a nearly perfect orthogonal layout of streets. The two main streets, the "cardo" and the "decumanus", would cross each other at a right angle in the center of the grid. This grid was an ideal structure to organize the different components of a city such as housing, theaters, and stores into particular blocks. To avoid the city becoming a monotonous series of blocks, the Romans incorporated various items such as open theaters, public baths, markets, and other recreational facilities within the city grid. SEWERS AND SANITATION The Romans established a number of public baths, latrines, and an interlinked sewage line binding them all together in a complex and efficient feat of engineering. Rome and other major cities had an extensive network of sewers and drains that ran along the sides of the streets. CONCRETE The Romans used to combine their cement with volcanic rock popularly known as "tuff," enabling the resulting concrete to endure possible chemical decay. It is not much of a surprise that many ancient Roman structures such as the Pantheon, the Colosseum and the Roman Forum having been standing for more than two millennia. ROADS AND HIGHWAYS Used for the rise of the Roman state, expanding all across the Roman Republic and then the Roman Empire. In a period of about 700 years, they built about 55,000 miles of paved highways around the Mediterranean basin and across Europe. It ensured the fast and efficient movement of goods, soldiers, and information across the entire empire. Roman roads usually followed a straight route across the countryside, making travel efficient and fast. AQUEDUCTS It is used to transport water from rivers, springs, and reservoirs. The first Roman aqueducts were built around 312 BC It uses the downhill flow of water to supply the city centers. Once the water reached bigger cities like Rome, large reservoirs would then contain it. The public baths, fountains, toilets, and private villas could then all tap into the network and access the water. SURGERY TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES They have invented procedures such as the cesarean section. During the reign of Augustus, a military medical corps was established to assist injured soldiers in battle They also invented tools like bronze scalpels, obstetric hooks, bone drills, and forceps, and also the rather frighteningly named vaginal speculum. Moreover, they pioneered the earliest form of antiseptic surgery since they used to dip medical tools in hot water to disinfect them before surgery. JULIAN CALENDAR Ancient Romans instituted the 12 months of the year. It is clear from the name that the calendar was named after Julius Caesar himself, and some Eastern orthodox churches use it to calculate holidays even today. NEWSPAPERS Newspapers were used for official announcements and developments. Rome was the first empire to establish a sophisticated system of circulating written news. It published the "Acta Diurna" which translates as "Daily Events." It is comprised of political news, trials, military campaigns, executions, major scandals, and other similar subjects these handwritten news sheets were published daily and posted by the government in the Roman Forum from the year 59 BC to somewhere around 222 AD. The Romans also published the "Acta Senatus" that recorded the proceedings in the Roman Senate.