Legacies of Ancient Egypt

A legacy in this context means a special contribution that a civilisation leaves behind. It might include:

 

Clipart kindly provided by www.phillipmartin.info A famous piece of ancient architecture. Can you think of other arenas based on this concept?

  • 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, 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.

 

 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:

     “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!

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.

**************************************************************** 

General: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_461511156_4/ancient_egypt.html (Scroll down to find ideas about legacies.)

Monuments:

http://www.jaconline.com.au/retroactive/home/downloads/retro-1-2e-spread-2-10.pdf

This is a pdf on the pyramids and monuments.

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: Create an attractive A4 page divided into four parts. Your heading is “Legacies of Ancient Egypt”. In each quarter of the page paste a picture and write (using your own words) about the legacy you have chosen and why you think it is impressive, significant or influential in history.

**************************************************

Then write a comment in answer to this cruel but fascinating 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?

                 My legacy…

   

   

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

10 Replies to “Legacies of Ancient Egypt”

  1. I would like to be a successful vet who will find more cures for animal diseases. =)

  2. I wish to become a doctor in order to help people around the world and cure them of them of suffering.

  3. I (me, myself and I) want to make sure that while I’m alive, everybody(including the PM) have the same amount of land, money. ect, thats because I’ll be PM (Tina)!

  4. firstly, i would like to create the first gun that is a cross between a m-16, nano launcher, sniper, chain gun, machine gun, rifle, uzii and a shot gun.
    finally, i would like to find a cure for obesity without excercise.

  5. My legacy would be to build the most avanced robot to help people in their everyday lives

  6. I think that people should not try to be known by everyone but, they should be known by everyone that they know.

  7. Wow Madusha!
    Your comments awsome!!

    I think what you wrote is very true your very clever to
    come up with somthing like that.
    For a moment i thought it was one of those famous qoutes thats
    on our blog.

    by the way,Divya how bout we both be the PM of australia.
    we coud share.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *