# Humanities & Anthropology > History & Civilisations >  Greatest Ancient Egyptian contribution(s) to the world

## Maciamo

Just remaking Zauriel's thread and poll.  :Smiling:

----------


## Anchyyy

I think the greatest contribution are pyramids. They are full of secrets, with all those mummies and paintings all over the walls.  :Smiling:

----------


## Kinsao

Embalming is pretty important, too, because it's due to good preservation that we can learn a lot about the ancient Egyptian society.  :Smiling: 

I think papyrus is also very important... except I don't know well my world history... so I don't know where else paper was invented... probably it would have been invented somewhere else if not in Egypt, eventually...

Of course, the calendar is still with us now, and close to everyone in a way that pyramids and mummies aren't... so maybe that is more "important"? It's difficult to say...  :Clueless: 

And the "practical inventions"... well, pulley, sundial, waterclock... I don't know what the others are and I'm sure they're all as important... I can't imagine the world without pulleys, for example, but needs must when the devil drives and I'm sure another nation would have invented the pulley if the Egyptians hadn't... In short, I can't say!  :Sorry:

----------


## Maciamo

I voted for papyrus (the ancestor of paper, even if not in direct line), glass making and the 365-day calendar, as they are the only one that have had a lasting effect on modern society. Surveying could be considered, but I think it could have easily developed independently in other cultures (just requires some mathematics, common to all human societies).

----------


## gohan93

ancient civilizations are kinda fun to learn about... i think that the calendar is the most important.

----------


## Sensuikan San

I too, voted for the calendar ... but ...

Was it not the _Maya_ who actually nailed it to 365.25 days? (Of course - quite a few years later ....)

Just a thought ...

W

----------


## Ma Cherie

> I too, voted for the calendar ... but ...
> 
> Was it not the _Maya_ who actually nailed it to 365.25 days? (Of course - quite a few years later ....)
> 
> Just a thought ...
> 
> W


I was thinking about that, too. They also had their own pyramids. There's been some speculation because it seems the Maya and ancient Egyptians shared some things in common. But I think it's just a coincidence, though. By the way, the Mayans calendar is still accurate, at least right now it is, becasue they believed the world is coming to an in 2013.  :Mad:

----------


## gohan93

i doubt that the world ends in 2013 though...

----------


## Ma Cherie

> i doubt that the world ends in 2013 though...


I do too, but that was something that the Mayans believed when they made their calendar.

----------


## nurizeko

I voted papyrus, because its just considored the natural forfather of paper, even, as said, not directly.

The carthaginians invented clear glass, while the egyptians only managed coloured, so the carthaginians get the brownie points on that front.

----------


## ^ lynx ^

Papyrus gets my vote.

----------


## LeBrok

We still use glass, surveying and pulley and in great quantities. They got my vote.

I can't believe though that the calendar is winning, lol. It so irrelevant how you call days of week or measure the year. Any callender we'd use, our lives would be exactly the same.

----------


## Wheal

I voted for glass making because it affects so many on a daily basis, and maybe because my dad was a glazing contractor

----------


## ratchet_fan

Is there any truth to the argument that Egypt's culture and accomplishments are derived from Upper Egypt or Nubia? This seems to be the new Afrocentric argument now that the argument that Egyptians were genetic SSA is completely dead.

----------


## Philjames100

Can you name anything specific which supposedly came from Nubia?

----------


## ratchet_fan

> Can you name anything specific which supposedly came from Nubia?


Supposedly they invented alphabets.




> In subsequent centuries, Nubians adopted the Egyptian method of writing but then discarded the cumbersome hieroglyphic system and, in an intellectual achievement rare in human history, invented a more sophisticated way of writing, using an alphabet.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...-b713816572c0/

This claim is dubious imo. I believe another historian in the article acknowledges that Greek and Phoenecians had alphabets at the same time.

Wikipedia also casts doubt on them having invented an alphabet. It says both Meroitic scripts are derived from Egyptian forms.




> The two scripts are Meroitic Cursive derived of Demotic Egyptian and Meroitic Hieroglyphics derived of Egyptian hieroglyphs.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meroitic_script

----------


## Philjames100

> Supposedly they invented alphabets.
> 
> 
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...-b713816572c0/
> 
> This claim is dubious imo. I believe another historian in the article acknowledges that Greek and Phoenecians had alphabets at the same time.
> 
> Wikipedia also casts doubt on them having invented an alphabet. It says both Meroitic scripts are derived from Egyptian forms.
> 
> ...


The Meroitic script dates from c.300-200 BC, long after the first alphabets, and during the Ptolemaic period when Egypt was under Greek rule. It has nothing to do with 'Egyptian culture and achievements originating from Nubia'.

----------


## ratchet_fan

> The Meroitic script dates from c.300-200 BC, long after the first alphabets, and during the Ptolemaic period when Egypt was under Greek rule. It has nothing to do with 'Egyptian culture and achievements originating from Nubia'.


ok. I'm glad the afrocentrist argument holds no weight.

On a related note is there any truth to the Library of Alexandria holding a lot of lost knowledge before it was destroyed?

----------


## Philjames100

It seems likely some knowledge was lost, but the Library of Alexandria was created by Greeks.

----------

