Dear 7X,
Sometimes I have dreams of how people will remember me. These dreams are sometimes positive and sometimes – well, sometimes a little embarrassing.
♥”She was a very good knitter. Look, she made me this scarf.”
♥”She was funny. Well, peculiar, actually.”
♥”She helped me on my first day of school when I got hopelessly lost and ended up in the cleaner’s broom cupboard.”
♥”Ever since she did that play dough mummification, I’ve decided I’d like to become an undertaker.”
Hmm, well. I know they’re not the most wonderful things to be remembered for, but they’re possibilities.
What would you like to be remembered for?
♥”That class was only here for one term before they took over the school.”
♥”That boy made a gadget that caused the i-Pad 2 to stop selling. Steve Jobs had to give him a job.”
♥”That girl became a great scientist and found a cure for breast cancer.”
♥”That boy figured out how to power Melbourne with recycled garbage from two high schools, four office blocks and an alpaca farm.”
♥”She was such a warm, kind person.”
♥”He was a wonderful father. Every night he told his children stories and they hung on his words.”
Everyone leaves some kind of legacy – and I don’t mean money. I mean an attitude of mind, a skill, an action or an achievement, hopefully one that is memorable and worthwhile, that lasts for many years and influences others.
In the context of a civilisation, a legacy means a special contribution that a civilisation leaves behind. It might include:
♦a memorable idea such as a special way of organising a society or dealing with a problem;
♦some kind of scientific knowledge;
♦an invention;
♦a monument;
♦a skill;
♦an impressive achievement in art, government, literature, etc;
♦something that later societies have admired and sought to emulate.
For instance, the ancient Sumerians are believed to have been the first to create a writing system. They pressed wedge-shaped marks into clay tablets. Many historians believe that this is what gave the Egyptians the idea of developing hieroglyphs.
Cuneiform – clipart kindly provided by www.phillipmartin.info (I always think that it would be wonderful if the first writing was created to write love poems or great literature. But no – someone wanted a receipt. Sigh. This is a material world.)
Here’s a quotation from an article about the 20-year history of the internet, by Guy Rundle in The Age on Sunday 15 March, 2009:
“Five thousand years ago, the invention of writing in Mesopotamia [Sumer] separated information from presence – a few strokes of cuneiform on a clay tablet established that meaning, intent, communication could be separated and transmitted without a person there to present it.
“From this event flows every modern institution of the state…”
That’s some legacy!
Here’s a quotation from an article about the 20-year history of the internet, by Guy Rundle in The Age on Sunday 15 March, 2009:
“Five thousand years ago, the invention of writing in Mesopotamia [Sumer] separated information from presence – a few strokes of cuneiform on a clay tablet established that meaning, intent, communication could be separated and transmitted without a person there to present it.
“From this event flows every modern institution of the state…”
That’s some legacy!
The ancient Egyptians had many achievements over the course of their long history. Their beautiful tomb paintings, for example, show us all about their lives on the Nile River. They drew figures in a way that changed little over the years. Can you think of other great and inspiring achievements that others might have built upon?
Egyptian peasants during harvest – note the side-on presentation of the bodies in classic Egyptian style
Image in public domain from wikimedia.commons
See what you can find out about the legacies of the ancient Egyptians at these sites.
♦Mathematics:
http://www.suite101.com/content/the-mathematics-of-ancient-egypt-a49376
♦Ancient Egyptian ideas about pi:
http://ualr.edu/lasmoller/pi.html
♦Ancient Egyptian art:
http://www.aldokkan.com/art/art.htm
Ancient Egyptian water engineering and inventions:
http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/nile/t1.html
(You’ll need to scroll down to read the vital information.)
Managing time – calendars and clocks:
http://library.thinkquest.org/J002046F/technology.htm
Ancient Egyptian writing:
http://www.ancientscripts.com/egyptian.html
Your task: Leave a comment describing the ancient Egyptian legacy you consider most interesting, significant or worthwhile. YOU MUST READ THE WEBSITES FIRST.
Then answer this question: What legacy would you as an individual like to leave behind? Another way to put this could be: How do you intend to leave the world a better place than you found it?
I would like my legacy to be for leaving behind a school for intelligent students, for those who can learn quickly without being pulled down by the slow workers. A place where they can do their own independent work to their level of study.
I think the Egyptians best legacy was the invention of canals and irrigation systems. The Egyptians needed to have a way of getting water to the crops further away from the river, and the way they fixed this was very smart.
I would like to be remembered as the lady who became a award-winning vet, and had horses who competed all over the world and won wheel-barrow-loads of trophies. I would also like to be known for the care I give to my horses and other pets.
I think that the artists have one of the best legacies because they are well remembered like Leonardo Divinci and create something significant.
I don’t know what to write!!!!!
Can someone help me?????
Good sir, me and my colleagues have discovered your fascinating interest in the subject of Egyptian legacies. We have taken it onto ourselves to study this subject and have discovered much about our favoured area of study ‘hyroglyphs’.
Attached is a document of our studies.
http://www.greatscott.com/hiero/
Regards, Sir Andrew.
I was reading about the Ancient Egyptian Calendar and I thought it was interesting. They developed a calendar with 365 days like ours, but there were 10 days a week, 3 weeks a month, 4 months a season and 3 seasons a year.
I thought this was unusual and I am left wondering why their calendar was like this.
Thank you, Sir Andrew. I’m impressed.
I think that the best thing that the ancient Egyptians gave to the world was mathematics and writing. Without it, the world wouldn’t function properly. At all. Because everyone would wander around not being able to track down people for the $25 they owed them because they wouldn’t keep track of it. As for writing, well we’d all be bored and exhausted because the only method of communication would have been word of mouth.
I think that the engineering and tools were the best legacies that the Egyptians left behind. They only had iron tools but they still have better structures that have lasted longer than our modern structures. They had levers and ramps to move heavy things. The Pyramids have survived many challenges and they still stand strong today. 🙂
Apologies for my bad spelling in the previous statement. Me and my colleagues were intoxicated by fatigue and were unable to think properly.
Regards, Sir Andrew.
I think mathematics and the writing of egyptian people is a good legacy because witjout writing or mathematics you couldn’t do much or there would be no way to communicate
I would like to be remembered as someone super awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I want to be remembered as a composer.
And Andrew… hyroglyphs? what are they?
I just hope that i will be remembered for something…
I thought the mathematical legacy was the most interesting as the egyptians would have had a hard time if they didn’t know how to do maths. They also would have been adding and subtracting everyday, and we would not be able to solve as many of the mathematical problems we have today.
The most interesting legacy of the Ancient Egyptians is the hieroghlyphics that they have left behind. it is really intersting that they designed a whole alphabet to write words with.
I think that the the hyrogliphs were the most interesting legacy because it may of prodded the idea of idioms. I would like to be remembered as a great pilot.
i would like to be remembered as a kind person who listened to what other people said and never put my self above others.
i would also liked to be remembered for helping bridge the gap between us and third world countries. helping stop poverty.
victoria (:
I want to leave behind the legacy of the architecture and design of new soccer stadiums, and Billionare’s houses.
The legacy that I would like to be remembered for would be: the person who invented the teleporter
i would like to be remebered as a good piano player or a kind, quiet person
i think the best legacy ancient egyptions had were their mummys. their burial rituals could have lead to the simple ones we have today, funerals, etc.
I would like to be rembered for finding pi to a quadrillion decimal places