Wrapping up ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt left behind many legacies to future civilisations. A legacy in this context means a special contribution that a civilisation leaves behind.

People leave legacies too, and I don’t mean money. They leave behind their ideas, their acts of kindness, their inventions and their creativity. You are exploring the legacies of human beings in your work for the Night of Notables.

An example of a civilisation’s legacy is writing. 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.

A legacy could also be:

  • 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.

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.

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://math.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_mathematics_of_ancient_egypt

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.

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?

Finally, see how many of the questions in the quiz below you can answer correctly.

The flow of history – from the Stone Age to ancient Egypt

Click on this link to complete a multiple choice quiz on the Stone Age. Some of the answers will be easier if you paid close attention to the video, “Stories from the Stone Age”. Good luck!

Stone Age Quiz Link

 

 

…there is no country that possesses so many wonders…

Herodotus

This picture of modern Egypt with its ancient wonders was kindly provided by Mrs McQueen in the library. She has more exciting holidays than I do, though I must admit, I have climbed those ancient stones myself. There's a photo below, in which I look uncomfortably hot. That was back in 1987.
This picture of modern Egypt with its ancient wonders was kindly provided by Mrs McQueen in the library. She has more exciting holidays than I do, though I must admit, I have climbed those ancient stones myself.

Egypt has a great fascination for historians. 

Remember, I'm a god. Even though I suffer from abscesses on my teeth and other mortal problems.
Remember, I'm a god - even though I suffer from abscesses on my teeth and other mortal problems.

Herodotus, a man from ancient Athens who is often dubbed the “father of history”, found the culture of the Egyptians strange as well as fascinating. You may feel the same as you wander the desert sands, sail across the Nile and show your embalming skills on our class mummy. I hope so.

♦Read up on the process of mummification

Play the Mummy Maker Game at the BBC website by clicking here

Read about the power of the Pharaohs here

View the treasures of Tutankhamen here

Another Resource for Studying Ancient Egypt

The World Book Online is a brilliant resource, which you can even access from outside through the intranet or this blog. You will need the username (bhhs) and password (worldbook) to use it, however.

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