In the approximately 4000 years in which it developed around the Nilethe civilization ofAncient Egypt He developed inventions and discoveries that we still use today. Very skilled manufacturers, designers and scholars of science and nature of both the earth and the cosmos, the Egyptians are the inventors, for example, of paper documentsof Modern calendar which lasts 365 days, of everyday objects such as toothbrushof elements such as wigs and also of the Bowling game.
5 inventions of ancient Egypt
The paper documents
The ancestor of the paper That every day, for the most disparate reasons, we use are the papyrus sheetsplant that grew along the Nile. From the stem the fiber With which these real sheets were made, light and functional. The size of the sheets vary according to the eras and their functionality: during the medium kingdom, a “classic” sheet was about 40 centimeters wide and almost 50 high. In the new kingdom, the dimensions are reduced to about 15-20 centimeters in width and thirty length.
The work of scribesthat is, the officials responsible for giraglifica writing and the transposition of the cultural memory of ancient Egypt, it was precisely to study and write: to allow them to do it with comfort, the papyrus sheets were organized in rollswith individual sheets united thanks to a mixture of water and flour.
The 365 -day calendar
In ancient times, the year has started to be measured as a period of 365 days – necessary for Earth To take a complete lap around the sun – thanks to the “people of the pyramids”.
Measuring the full of the Nilein fact, began to realize that the full cycles resorted, and therefore the same had one cyclicity. The need to measure and “organize” the months also clearly arises from the intense work and commercial activities that the Egyptians undertaken. Thus was also born the measurement of 12 monthscomposed of 30 days the one, to which they added in the end 5 days “extra” To complete the 365 days of the year. Each month it is then made up of 3 decades for 10 days, and the whole year is divided into three seasons that lasted 4 months each, divided according to the waters of the Nile: Akhet (flood), Peret (exit) Shemu (dry).
Oral cavity well -being systems: toothbrush, toothpaste and mentally
THE’diet of the ancient Egyptians was very rich in cereals, seed And fibrous vegetables And it involved problems of oral disorders – as evidenced by finds with dental diseases – and probably also bad breath. That’s why an ancestor of the toothbrush – a wooden stick with jagged – and del toothpastemade with a mixture of egg shells, ash and herbs, or salt, mint, chopped pepper grains and dried Iris flower. We have testimonies of these customs because residues of these pasta and oral cleaning objects were found next to the mummies, and recipes were found “Egyptian toothpastes” also on papyri dating back to Roman employment, in the 4th century AD
But not only! To counter bad breath and help in cleaning the mouth, the Egyptians created Mirra -based ballswhich were rubbery and easily chewable, just like a ment in a menthin or a chewingum to refresh the breath.
Wigs, extensions and hair styling
The iconography of ancient Egypt gives us images of Refined and elaborate hairstylesprecise helmets and decorations in the hair: just as for what concerns the make -up and cosmetics of the face and body, also the wigs and the extensions For the hair they had to do with it social status and the religious life. They wore both men and women, and were made with animal hair and maids, primarily horseshoe, and real hair. It is an exceptional testimony of the Merit wig, preserved in Egyptian Museum of Turinfound in Luxor.
Bowling
We are in Narmouthis, less than 100 km from Cairo: right here a group of Italian researchers fromUniversity of Pisa he found one towards the late 1900s Bowling track dating back to the III-II century. B.C
The base of the track is in silt – fertile mud located on the bottom of the Nile – and on it are excavated grooves of about 4 meters along which the pins were positioned. The style is therefore different than modern bowling, but it is in all likelihood of the oldest prototype of this game.
