Date and Time: 10-11 AM, November 3013

Venue: Room E3B, GET Building, University of Mindanao, Matina Campus

Speakers: Marvin B. Gonzaga

Paul John B. Gataber

Violeta G. Dumanayos

Egypt is a country in North Africa, onthe Mediterranean Sea, and is among theoldest civilizations on earth. The name 'Egypt' comesfrom the Greek Aegyptos which was the Greekpronunciation of the Egyptian name 'Hwt-Ka-Ptah'(which means House of the Spirit of Ptah, who was avery early God of the Ancient Egyptians). In the earlyOld Kingdom Egypt was simply known as 'Kemet' whichmeans 'Black Land' so named for the rich, dark soilalong the Nile River where the first settlements began.

Evidence of overgrazing of cattle, on the landwhich is now the Sahara Desert, has been dated toabout 8,000 BCE. This evidence, along with artifactsdiscovered, points to a thriving agricultural civilizationin the region at that time. As the land was mostly arideven then, hunter-gathering nomads sought the cool ofthe water source of the Nile River Valley and began tosettle there sometime prior to 5500 BCE. Organizedfarming began in the region c. 5000 BCE andcommunities known as the Badari Culture began toflourish alongside the river.

Astronomy-the Egyptians studied the night sky, taking measurementsfrom the stars to accurately align their pyramids and suntemples with the earth's four cardinal points. Takingsightings of the Great Bear and Orion with an instrumentcalled a merkhet (similar to an astrolabe), astronomer-priestsmarked out the foundations of buildings with astonishingaccuracy.

-The Great Pyramid at Giza provides an example. Thisremarkable building has a footprint of over 13 acres andconsists of approximately 6.5 million limestone blocks. Itsfour sides are accurately aligned to face north, east, south,and west, with an error of less than half a degree. They arealso virtually identical in length, with less than a 20 cm (8inch) variance between one side and another.

merkhet

Calendar

The Egyptian calendar was based of a year of 365 days, with twelve months and three seasons. Each month had three ten-day weeks, for a total of 30 days. The last five days of the year corresponded to the birthdays of five deities: Osiris, Isis, Horus, Seth and Nephthys. The three seasons corresponded to the cycle of the Nile and agriculture. New Year's day was on July 19(in the Julian calendar) and marked the beginning of the first season, akhet. This was the time of the flooding of the Nile. The next season, during which the crops began to emerge, was called peret and started on November 16. The last season, Shemu, began on March 17 at harvest time.

Mathematics

Although the Egyptians lacked the symbol for zero, they calculated numbers based on the decimal and the repetitive (numbers based on the power of 10). The following signs were used to represent numbers in the decimal system:

The Egyptians knew about fractions and used specialsigns for two-thirds, three-quarters, four-fifths andfive-sixths. They also had some basic knowledgeof geometry, such as the fact that the area of arectangle was equal to its length multiplied by itswidth, and they were able to calculate the area of acircle according to the length of its diameter.

MedicineThe doctors of ancient Egypt combined magic spells withremedies. If a person fell sick, the illness was thought tobe caused by the wrath of the gods or by an evil spirit thathad entered the body. Both priests and doctors were calledupon to heal the sick, combining their powers and skills tofix the problem. The most common cure for maladies wasan amulet and a magic spell to modify the incorrectbehaviour that had caused the illness in the first place.

By the fifth century B.C., Egyptian doctors had theirown specialization. Most of the doctors were men and, withintheir ranks, there was a hierarchy. Throughout the pharaonictimes, the most sought-after positions were in the royalcourt. These doctors looked after the health of thepharaohs, their families and members of their court.

Women practised contraception by using concoctions such ashoney and natron, which they injected into their vaginas. TheEgyptians also devised the earliest-known pregnancy test.Women moistened a sample of barley and emmer (wheat)with their urine each day. If the barley grew, it meant thechild would be a male; if the emmer grew, it would be afemale. If neither grew, it meant the woman was notpregnant. The effectiveness of this test has been validated bymodern science. The urine of non-pregnant women willprevent barley from growing!

MummificationThe ancient Egyptians believed in the resurrection of thebody and life everlasting. As long as order was maintained,life after death could be achieved provided certain conditionswere met. For example, the body had to be preserved throughmummification and given a properly furnished tombwith everything needed for life in the afterworld.

The practice of mummification began in Egypt in 2400 B.C.and continued into the Graeco-Roman Period. Duringthe Old Kingdom, it was believed that only pharaohs couldattain immortality. Around 2000 B.C., attitudes changed,however: everyone could live in the afterworld as long as thebody was mummified and the proper elements were placed inthe tomb. But since mummification was expensive, only thewealthy were able to take advantage of it. The art ofmummification was perfected in the Third IntermediatePeriod (1070-712 B.C.).

1. linen2. sawdust3. lichen4. beeswax5. resin6. natron7. onion8. Nile mud9. linen pads10. frankincense

The Pyramids of Egypt

The Great Pyramids of Giza are located on a plateau on the west bank ofthe Nile River, on the outskirts of modern-day Cairo. The oldest andlargest of the three pyramids at Giza, known as the Great Pyramid, is theonly surviving structure out of the famed seven wonders of the ancientworld. It was built for Khufu, second of the eight kings of the fourthdynasty. The sides of the pyramid's base average 755.75 feet (230 meters),and its original height was 481.4 feet (147 meters), making it the largestpyramid in the world. Like other pyramids, Khufu's is surrounded by rowsof mastabas, where relatives or officials of the king were buried toaccompany and support him in the afterlife.

The middle pyramid at Giza was built for Khufu's son Khafre (2558-2532B.C). A unique feature built inside Khafre's pyramid complex was theGreat Sphinx, a statue carved in limestone with the head of a man and thebody of a lion. It was the largest statue in the ancient world, measuring240 feet long and 66 feet high. The southernmost pyramid at Giza wasbuilt for Khafre's son Menkaure (2532-2503 B.C.). It is the shortest of thethree pyramids (218 feet) and is a precursor of the smaller pyramids thatwould be constructed during the fifth and sixth dynasties.

Approximately 2.3 million blocks of stone (averaging about2.5 tons each) had to be cut, transported and assembled tobuild Khufu's Great Pyramid. The ancient Greek historianHerodotus wrote that it took 20 years to build and requiredthe labor of 100,000 men, but later archaeological evidencesuggests that the workforce might actually have been around20,000. Though some popular versions of history held thatthe pyramids were built by slaves or foreigners forced intolabor, skeletons excavated from the area show that theworkers were probably native Egyptian agricultural laborerswho worked on the pyramids during the time of year whenthe Nile River flooded much of the land nearby.

Alexandria is a port city on the Mediterranean Sea innorthern Egypt founded in 331 BCE by Alexander theGreat. It is most famous in antiquity as the site of thePharos, the great lighthouse, considered one of theseven wonders of the ancient world, for the Temple ofSerapis, the Serapion, which was part of the legendarylibrary at Alexandria, as a seat of learning and, once, thelargest and most prosperous city in the world. It alsobecame infamous for the religious strife which resultedin the martyrdom of the philosopher Hypatia ofAlexandria in 415 CE. The city grew from a small porttown to become the grandest and most importantmetropolis in ancient Egypt.

The city grew to become the largest in the known worldat the time, attracting scholars, scientists, philosophers,mathematicians, artists, and historians. Eratosthenes(c.276-194 BCE) calculated the circumference of theearth to within 50 miles (80 km) at Alexandria. Euclidtaught at the university there. Archimedes (287-212 BCE)the great mathematician and astronomer may havetaught there and was certainly studied there. Thegreatest engineer and mathematician of his day, Hero(also known as Heron, 10-70 CE) was born and lived inAlexandria. Hero was credited with amazing feats inengineering and technology including the first vendingmachine, the force-pump, and a theatre of automatedfigures who danced, among his other inventions.

The city became steadily impoverished after the rise ofChristianity, both financially and culturally, and becameincreasingly a battlefield for warring faiths.. The forces of theChristian Byzantines and the Muslim Arabs then fought forcontrol of the city, and Egypt, until the Arabian forcesprevailed in 646 CE and Egypt fell under Islamic rule. Thechurches were now destroyed or transformed in mosques andChristian legend claims that it was at this time that the greatlibrary was burned by the Muslim conquerors.

What was not destroyed by war was taken down by natureand, by 1323 CE, most of Ptolemaic Alexandria was gone. Thegreat lighthouse was steadily destroyed by earthquakes as wasmuch of the port. In 1994 CE the first discoveries were madeknown of a number of relics, statuary, and buildings in theharbor of Alexandria. These have been steadily excavated byProfessor Jean-Yves Empereur and his team who continue tobring to light the lost golden age of Alexandria.