Egyptian Contributions Created by: Catherine H. Harrison

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Hieroglyphic Alphabet Back to Step 2

Written Language Hieroglyphics The Ancient Egyptians loved to write and draw. With that love, they created their own written language using pictures. The official language of the Ancient Egyptians was Hieroglyphics. This language is made up of pictures or hieroglyphs that represented words, letters, or a combination of letters. Ancient Egyptians wrote Hieroglyphics on the walls of their homes, pyramids, tombs, and on papyrus scrolls. Back then, children could write on their walls and not get in trouble with mom. Original Hieroglyphics started out very simple. If there was a picture of a bird it meant bird. But over time, that simple bird picture became the letter M. People started to get confused about what pictures mean what. Over time, no one could remember what the pictures meant. In 1799, a stone called the Rosetta Stone was found by the French in Northern Egypt. On each side of this special stone there were three different languages telling the same story. One of the languages was Hieroglyphics. The other two languages were Demotic and Greek. People could still read Greek and so they compared the Greek words with the Hieroglyphic symbols and began to understand what each picture meant. In 1822, Jean Fancois Champollion began study Hieroglyphics and he figured out that some of pictures were for letters, some were for words and some were for ideas. His work helped Archaeologists read the walls and works of the Ancient Egyptians and learn more about this time in history. Back To Journal

Inventions Page 1 Back To Journal Egyptian Calendar The Ancient Egyptians created the first known 365-day Calendar. They created it in order to mark the passage of years and to record special or significant events. Their calendar was originally based on the phases of the moon until they found the Sirius star (“Dog Star”) rises up every 365 days. This was also about the time the Nile river flooded the Egyptian valley. Egyptian Clocks Obelisks (slender, tapering, four-sided monuments) had moving shadows that created an almost sundial, allowing Egyptians to split the day in half, morning and afternoon. This clock showed the year's longest and shortest days by how the shadows moved. Markers around the base of the Obelisks helped show more division of time during the day. Inventions Page 2

Inventions Page 2 Back To Journal “Papyrus” Egyptian Paper Papyrus means two things. First, it is the plant that is grown in Lower Egypt near the Nile River. Second, papyrus is the paper that is made from the papyrus plant. Papyrus paper was made by laying the reads of the plant in two layers and pressing them together. The Egyptians pressed several of these pages together to create scrolls. Inventions Page 1

Architecture - Pyramids Back To Journal Egyptian Pyramids When most people think Egypt, they think Pyramids. The Egyptians built two types of Pyramids, the “Step Pyramid” and the true “Pyramid” The Pyramids were built as tombs. They were places to burry the Kings and Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. They were built to protect the Pharaoh’s body. Inside the Pyramids were mazes and dead-ends in order to protect the Pharaoh’s body somewhere in the Pyramid. Buried with the Pharaoh, there were all of his treasures that he/she wanted to take in the afterlife. The Egyptian Pyramids are hand-made. They are made of huge blocks made of sand, clay and stone. “The Great Pyramid” or “Khufu” is the largest pyramid ever built. It is over 450ft high.