# Humanities & Anthropology > History & Civilisations >  Greatest Egyptian contributions to the world

## Zauriel

Ancient achievements

Louvre Museum antiquitySee Predynastic Egypt for inventions and other significant achievements in the Sahara region before the Protodynastic Period. For example the world's earliest known writing system dates to the predynastic era [8].

The art and science of engineering was present in Egypt, such as accurately determining the position of points and the distances between them (known as surveying). These skills were used to outline pyramid bases. The Egyptian pyramids took the geometric shape formed from a polygonal base and a point, called the apex, by triangular faces. Hydraulic Cement was first invented by the Egyptians. The Al Fayyum Irrigation (water works) was one of the main agricultural breadbaskets of the ancient world. There is evidence of ancient Egyptian pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty using the natural lake of the Fayyum as a reservoir to store surpluses of water for use during the dry seasons. From the time of the First dynasty or before, the Egyptians mined turquoise in Sinai Peninsula.

The earliest evidence (circa 1600 BC) of traditional empiricism is credited to Egypt, as evidenced by the Edwin Smith and Ebers papyri. The roots of the Scientific method may be traced back to the ancient Egyptians. The ancient Egyptians are also credited with devising the world's earliest known alphabet, decimal system [9] and complex mathematical formularizations, in the form of the Moscow and Rhind Mathematical Papyri. An awareness of the Golden ratio seems to be reflected in many constructions, such as the Egyptian pyramids.

Predynastic
See main article and timeline: Predynastic Egypt.

3500 BC - Faience, world's earliest known 

Dynastic
3300 BC - Bronze works (see Bronze Age) 
3200 BC - Egyptian hieroglyphs fully developed (see First dynasty of Egypt) 
3200 BC - Narmer Palette, world's earliest known historical document 
3100 BC - Decimal system, [10], world's earliest (confirmed) use 
3100 BC - Wine cellars, world's earliest known [11] 
3100 BC - Mining, Sinai Peninsula 
3050 BC - Shipbuilding in Abydos, [12] 
3000 BC - Exports from Nile to Israel: wine (see Narmer) 
3000 BC - Copper plumbing (see Copper: History) 
3000 BC - Medical Institutions 
3000 BC - Papyrus, world's earliest known paper 
3000 BC - Senet, world's oldest (confirmed) board game 
2900 BC - possible steel: carbon-containing iron, [13] 
2700 BC - Surgery, world's earliest known 
2700 BC - precision Surveying 
2600 BC - Sphinx, still today the world's largest single-stone statue 
2600s-2500 BC - Shipping expeditions: King Sneferu and Pharaoh Sahure. See also [14], [15]. 
2600 BC - Barge transportation, stone blocks (see Egyptian pyramids: Construction) 
2600 BC - Pyramid of Djoser, world's earliest known large-scale stone building 
2600 BC - Menkaure's Pyramid & Red Pyramid, world's earliest known works of carved granite 
2600 BC - Red Pyramid, world's earliest known "true" smooth-sided pyramid; solid granite work 
2580 BC - Great Pyramid of Giza, the world's tallest structure until AD 1300 
2500 BC - Beekeeping, [16] 
2400 BC - Astronomical Calendar, used even in the Middle Ages for its mathematical regularity 
2200 BC - Beer, [17] 
1860 BC - possible Nile-Red Sea Canal (Twelfth dynasty of Egypt) 
1800 BC - Alphabet, world's oldest known 
1800 BC - Berlin Mathematical Papyrus, [18], 2nd order algebraic equations 
1800 BC - Moscow Mathematical Papyrus, generalized formula for volume of frustum 
1650 BC - Rhind Mathematical Papyrus: geometry, cotangent analogue, algebraic equations, arithmetic series, geometric series 
1600 BC - Edwin Smith papyrus, medical tradition traces as far back as c. 3000 BC 
1550 BC - Ebers Medical Papyrus, traditional empiricism; world's earliest known documented tumors (see History of medicine) 
1500 BC - Glass-making, world's earliest known 
1258 BC - Peace treaty, world's earliest known (see Ramesses II, [19]) 
1160 BC - Turin papyrus, world's earliest known geologic and topographic map 
5th-4th century BC (or perhaps earlier) - battle games, petteia and seega; possible precursors to Chess (see Origins of chess) 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt

The ancient civil Egyptian calendar had a year that was 365 days long, consisting of 12 months of 30 days each, plus 5 extra days at the end of the year. The months were divided into 3 "weeks" of ten days each.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_calendar

Suez Canal: 

The Suez canal had an immediate and dramatic effect on world trade. It not only played an important role in increasing European penetration and colonization of Africa but also brought Western ideas of liberty to the Spanish colony of Philippines as well as brought British families to India. Before the Suez Canal was modernized, ony British men went to India. Very few women and children have gone with their husbands and fathers because they had to travel the westward route which was the very longer one to India.

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## Zauriel

Hey, Monsieur Maciamo, I have mistakenly/erroneously typed in the word Alphabet. What I meant to say was "writing system" not alphabet.

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## Maciamo

> Hey, Monsieur Maciamo, I have mistakenly/erroneously typed in the word Alphabet. What I meant to say was "writing system" not alphabet.


I have changed it. I have also removed the Suez Canal, as it was built by the French.

I also doubt some of the "first" things you mentioned. There is little proof that the Egyptian made the first sea-faring ship ever, as even prehistoric men had such ships. E.g. Ancient Britons had ships that could cross the English Channel well before Egypt developed as a civilization.

Faience : Wikipedia says that the Indus Civilization were the first

Wine : Wikipedia says "The earliest known evidence of a fermented wine-like drink is from the Chinese village of Jiahu dated from 6000 to 7000 BC". Chances are they had cellars too, as wine only arrived in Egypt several millenia later, and grapes were never grown in Egypt anyway.

Scientific method : Where did you find that ? The Greeks were the first to "invent" sciences as we understand it today.

Surgery, medicine and embalming : Primitive medicine is probably much older than civilisations and cannot be dated. The first "known" surgery was in Egypt, but that's because the oldest written proofs are from Egypt. Not a valid proof. Ok for embalming.

Bee-keeping : Again. Wikipedia tell us that "Some of the earliest evidence of beekeeping is from rock painting, dating to around 13,000 BC." However, this could have been anywhere in the world where there were bees. We have no evidence of the "very first" place and time.

Mathematics : Wikipedia again inform us that "In addition to recognizing how to count concrete objects, prehistoric peoples also recognized how to count abstract quantities, like time -- days, seasons, years. From counting, naturally followed arithmetic (e.g. addition, subtraction, multiplication and division)." 

Geometry : there is no clear evidence that Egypt developed it before Babylon, afaik.

Decimal system : Wikipedia has this :
- c. 3500 - 2500 BC Elamites of Iran possibly use early forms of decimal system.
- c. 2900 BC Egyptian hieroglyphs show counting in powers of 10 (1 million + 400,000 goats, etc.).

So the Elamites were proably earlier than the Egyptains. Again we have to rely on written proof, which are bound by the earliest written document surviving (in Egypt's dry climate). I am quite sure that a decimal system existed in some societies before they had a writing system. It just depends how they decided to organise their language.




> Copper (A mixture of tin and bronze by human hand)


I guess you meant "Bronze : a mixture of tin and copper". Yet, the bronze age did not first appear in Egypt, but in the Maykop Culture in the Caucasus.




> world's earliest known peace treaty


Earliest known does not equal earliest. There has been wars and peace treaties amongst humans well before the dawn of civilisations. Just look at North American Indians who buried a hatchet instead of writing a treaty.

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## Zauriel

> I also doubt some of the "first" things you mentioned. There is little proof that the Egyptian made the first ship ever, as even prehistoric men had such ships.


Oh, I stand corrected. Please remove ships from the poll. What about other first things that you mentioned you doubted?

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## Maciamo

Shall I delete all the "dubbious" or wrong ones ?

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## Zauriel

Oui, Monsieur Macianmo.

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## Zauriel

> Scientific method : Where did you find that ? The Greeks were the first to "invent" sciences as we understand it today.
> .


It is on the Ancient achievements on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt



> The roots of the Scientific method may be traced back to the ancient Egyptians





> I guess you meant "Bronze : a mixture of tin and copper". Yet, the bronze age did not first appear in Egypt, but in the Maykop Culture in the Caucasus..


Oops. Of course, my bad. I easily get headaches reading too much information on Egypt so it was hard to focus on what you're reading too fast.

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## Maciamo

> It is on the Ancient achievements on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt


Yes, but I wouldn't trust too much a page that has "This article may not conform to the neutral point of view policy." written at the top.  :Relieved:

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## Maciamo

I also forgot this about the "first" writing system : "The first writing system is generally believed to have been the Sumerian script, which developed into cuneiform. Egyptian hieroglyphs and perhaps the undeciphered Proto-Elamite script date to approximately the same time, however." Once again, not clear, and probably not Egyptian.

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## Maciamo

I have created a new poll (with multiple options this time) removing the debatable points. I will close this thread to avoid confusion.

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