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Ancient Egyptian Science and Technology

The characteristics of ancient Egyptians are indicated by a set of artifacts and customs that lasted
for thousands of years. The Egyptians invented and used many basic machines, such as the ramp
and the lever, to aid construction processes. They used rope trusses to stiffen the beam of ships.
Egyptian paper, made from papyrus, and pottery was mass produced and exported throughout the
Mediterranean basin. The wheel, however, did not arrive until foreign invaders introduced the
chariot in the 16th century BC. The Egyptians also played an important role in developing
Mediterranean maritime technology including ships and lighthouses.
Significant advances in ancient Egypt during the dynastic period include astronomy,
mathematics, and medicine. Their geometry was a necessary outgrowth of surveying to preserve
the layout and ownership of farmland, which was flooded annually by the Nile river. The 3,4,5
right triangle and other rules of thumb served to represent rectilinear structures, and the post and
lintel architecture of Egypt. Egypt also was a center of alchemy research for much of the western
world. Scenes depict scientists able to work in fields of alchemy, biology, chemistry, dentistry,
anesthesiology, air flight, and more.
Dendera Light


Electricity or Something Else?
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Some have suggested that the Egyptians had some form of understanding electric phenomena
from observing lightning and interacting with electric fish (such as the Malapterurus electricus)
or other animals (such as electric eels). The comment about lightning appears to come from a
misunderstanding of a text referring to "high poles covered with copper plates" to argue this but
Dr. Bolko Stern has written in detail explaining why the copper covered tops of poles (which
were lower than the associated pylons) do not relate to electricity or lightning, pointing out that
no evidence of anything used to manipulate electricity had been found in Egypt and that this was
a magical and not a technical installation.
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The single representation of the image, called the "Dendera light" by some alternative
suggestions, exists on the left wall of the right wing in one of the crypts of the Hathor temple.
Those exploring fringe theories of ancient technology have suggested that there were electric
lights used in Ancient Egypt. Engineers have constructed a working model based on their
interpretation of a relief found in the Hathor temple at the Dendera Temple complex.
The "Dendera light" is a technology of electrical lighting supposedly in existence in ancient
Egypt, proposed by some fringe authors. Proponents argue that the technology is depicted in the
Hathor temple at the Dendera Temple complex located in Egypt on three stone reliefs (one single
and a double representation), which resemble some modern electical lighting systems.
Egyptologists reject the theory and explain the reliefs as a typical set of symbolic images from
Egyptian mythology.
Authors (such as Peter Krassa and Reinhard Habeck) have produced a basic theory of the
device's operation. The standard explanation, however, for the Dendera light, which comprises
three stone reliefs (one single and a double representation) is that the depicted image represents a
lotus leaf and flower from which a sacred snake is spawned in accordance with Egyptian
mythological beliefs. This sacred snake sometimes is identified as the Milky Way (the snake) in
the night sky (the leaf, lotus, or "bulb") that became identified with Hathor because of her similar
association in creation.

The cathode-ray tube or "Crookes' tube" like object depicted in scenes from the temple of Hathor
at Dendera may depict a relativistic source of these heavy electrons - which could drastically
expedite the magical processes which involve these particular tubes.
The walls are decorated with human figures next to bulb-like objects reminiscent of oversized
light bulbs. Inside these "bulbs" there are snakes in wavy lines. The snakes' pointed tails issue
from a lotus flower, which, without much imagination, can be interpreted as the socket of the
bulb. Something similar to a wire leads to a small box on which the air god is kneeling. Adjacent
to it stands a two-armed djed pillar as a symbol of power, which is connected to the snake. Also
remarkable is the baboon-like demon holding two knives in his hands, which are interpreted as a
protective and defensive power.
In his book The Eyes of the Sphinx, Erich Von Daniken writes that the relief is found in "a secret
crypt" that "can be accessed only through a small opening. The room has a low ceiling. The air is
stale and laced with the smell of dried urine from the guards who occasionally use it as a urinal."
The room is not so secret, however, as many tourists visit and photograph the room every year.
Von Daniken sees the snake as a filament, the djed pillar as an insulator, and claims "the monkey
with the sharpened knives symbolizes the danger that awaits those who do not understand the
device." This "device" is, the reader is assured, an ancient electric light bulb.
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Metallurgy
Metallurgy was carried on with an elaborate technique and a business organization not unworthy
of the modern world, while the systematic exploitation of mines was an important industry
employing many thousands of workers. Even as early as 3400 B.C., at the beginning of the
historical period, the Egyptians had an intimate knowledge of copper ores and of processes of
extracting the metal. During the fourth and subsequent dynasties (i.e. from about 2900 B.C.
onwards), metals seem to have been entirely monopolies of the Court, the management of the
mines and quarries being entrusted to the highest officials and sometimes even to the sons of the
Pharaoh.
Whether these exalted personages were themselves professional metallurgists we do not know,
but we may at least surmise that the details of metallurgical practice, being of extreme
importance to the Crown, were carefully guarded from the vulgar. And when we remember the
close association between the Egyptian royal family and the priestly class we appreciate the
probable truth of the tradition that chemistry first came to light in the laboratories of Egyptian
priests.

Metal-Workers' Workshop in Old Egypt



Copper and Iron Extraction
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In addition to copper, which was mined in the eastern desert between the Nile and the Red Sea,
iron was known in Egypt from a very early period and came into general use about 800 B.C.
According to Lucas, iron appears to have been an Asiatic discovery. It was certainly known in
Asia Minor about I300 B.C. One of the Kings of the Hittites sent Rameses II, the celebrated
Pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty, an iron sword and a promise of a shipment of the same
metal.
The Egyptians called iron 'the metal of heaven' or ba-en-pet, which indicates that the first
specimen employed were of meteoric origin; the Babylonian name having the same meaning.
It was no doubt on account of its rarity that iron was prized so highly by the early Egyptians,
while its celestial source would have its fascination. Strange to say, it was not used for
decorative, religious or symbolical purposes, which - coupled with the fact that it rusts so readily
- may explain why comparatively few iron objects of early dynastic age have been discovered.
One which has fortunately survived presents several points of interest: it is an iron tool from the
masonry of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza, and thus presumably dates from the time when
the Pyramid was being built, i.e. about 2900 B.C. This tool was subjected to chemical analysis
and was found to contain combined carbon, which suggests that it may have been composed of
steel.
By 666 B.C. the process of casehardening was in use for the edges of iron tools, but the story that
the Egyptians had some secret means of hardening copper and bronze that has since been lost is
probably without foundation. Desch has shown that a hammered bronze, containing 10.34 per
cent of tin, is considerably harder than copper and keeps a cutting edge much better.
Of the other non-precious metals, tin was used in the manufacture of bronze, and cobalt has been
detected as a coloring agent in certain specimens of glass and glaze. Neither metal occurs
naturally in Egypt, and it seems probable that supplies of ore were imported from Persia. Lead,
though it never found extensive application, was among the earliest metals known, specimen
having been found in graves of pre-dynastic times. Galena (PbS) was mined in Egypt at Gebel
Rasas ('Mountain of Lead'), a few miles from the Red Sea coast, and the supply must have been
fairly good, for when the district was re-worked from 19I2 to 1915 it produced more than I8,000
tons of ore.



Gold
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The vast quantities of gold amassed by the Pharaohs were the envy of contemporary and later
sovereigns. Though much was imported, received by way of tribute, or captured in warfare, the
Egyptian mines themselves were reasonably productive.

Egyptian Goldsmiths Washing, Melting and Weighing Gold Beni Hasan, 1900 B.C.
Over one hundred ancient gold workings have been discovered in Egypt and the Sudan, though
within the limits of Egypt proper there appear to have been gold mines only in the desert valleys
to the east of the Nile near Ikoptos, Ombos and Apollinopolis Magna.
Of one of these mines - possibly near Apollinopolis - a plan has been found in a papyrus of the
fourteenth century B.C., and the remains of no fewer than 1,300 houses for gold-miners are still
to be seen in the Wadi Fawakhir, halfway between Koptos and the Red Sea. In one of the
treasure chambers of the temple of Rameses III, at Medinet-Habu, are represented eight large
bags, seven of which contained gold and bear the following descriptive labels.
The Egyptian word for gold is nub, which survives in the name Nubia, a country that provided a
great deal of the precious metal in ancient days. French Scientist Champollion regarded it as a
kind of crucible, while Rossellini and Lepsius preferred to see in it a bag or cloth, with hanging
ends, in which the grains of gold were washed - the radiating lines representing the streams of
water that ran through.

Gold Washing in Ancient Egypt
Crivelli has more recently advanced the theory that the gold symbol is the conventional sign for a
portable furnace used for the fusion of gold, and that the rays represent the flames, which, 'as can
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be observed in the use of this type of furnace, are unable to ascend because the wind inclines
them horizontally'.
In the later dynasties, the Egyptians themselves forgot the original significance of the sign and
drew it as a necklace with pendent beads. Elliot Smith however says that this was the primitive
form and became the determinative of Hathor, the Egyptian Aphrodite, who was the guardian of
the Eastern valleys where gold was found.

Egyptian Goldsmith Workshop in the Pyramid Age
The gold mines in Nubia and other parts of the Egyptian empire seem to have been very
efficiently designed and controlled, though with a callous disregard for the human element
employed.
Alluvial auriferous sand was also treated, a distinction being made between the gold obtained in
this way and that extracted from the mines. The latter was called nub-en-set, i.e. gold of the
mountain, while alluvial gold was named nub-en-mu, i.e. 'gold of the river'. Auriferous sand was
placed in a bag made of a fleece with the woolly side inwards; water was then added and the bag
vigorously shaken by two men. When the water was poured off, the earthy particles were carried
away, leaving the heavier particles of gold adhering to the fleece. There is a picture of this
operation on one of the buildings at Thebes. buildings at Thebes.



Mercury
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Mercury (Greek-hydra gyros, liquid silver; latin-argentum vivum, live or quick silver) is stated to
have been found in Egyptian tombs of from 1500-1600 B.C.



Leyden Papyrus X

The Leyden papyrus X (P. Leyden X) is a papyrus codex written in Greek at about the end of the
3rd century A.D. or perhaps around 250 A.D. and buried with its owner, and today preserved at
Leiden in the Netherlands. It contains alchemical texts, mostly concerned with making dyes and
alloys which can be made to look like gold. It also mentions Moses as an alchemist.
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The Leiden papyrus was discovered at Thebes in Egypt, together with the Stockholm Papyrus,
which was probably written by the same scribe, and many Greek magical papyri, in the early
19th century by an adventurer calling himself J ean d'Anastasi, holding the office of Swedish
vice-consul in Alexandria. In 1828 he sold a number of papyri to the Dutch government, which
were lodged at the Leiden University Library, and labelled as "papyrus A", "papyrus B", etc. The
first publication of information was in 1843, and the texts were published with Latin translation
in 1885 by Leemans as Papyri Graeci Musei antiquarii publici Lugduni Batavii. Papyrus X is the
most interesting of these. There is some relationship to the Greek magical papyri and to the
Mappae clavicula.
The papyrus consists of 10 leaves, 30 x 34 cm in size, folded lengthwise and making 20 pages, of
which 16 contain writing. Each page has 28-47 lines. The text contains one hundred and eleven
recipes for extracting precious metals, or counterfeiting such metals, or precious stones and
purple dye. It also contains details of the manufacture of textiles, and making gold and silver
inks.
The recipes are not detailed, and probably served as an aide-memoire for those already familiar
with the process. The presentation is exclusively practical, and does not include the usual
alchemical or philosophical elements. The last eleven recipes are simply short extracts from the
Materia Medica of Pedanius Dioscorides. They are chiefly descriptions of certain minerals. It is
of interest to note that the extracts in the papyrus are very close to the present editions of this
Greek writer compiled from quite different sources. The work is a collection of chemical recipes
and directions for:
1. Making metallic alloys
2. Imitations of gold, silver or electrum
3. Dye and other related arts



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