CHAPTER IV✦

EGYPTIAN SCIENCE

The early civilization in Egypt developed in the ancient cities of Thebes and Memphis. Authorities on the dawn of history in Egypt are unable to definitely account for the origins of the various peoples who have ruled the land. One school contends that the early negroid inhabitants originated in Africa. Another school opposes this view and suggests an Asiatic origin. Each of these schools can marshal facts to sustain its contentions. The truth is that Africa was inhabited at such an early period that we are unable to fully trace back the movements of its races.

Man was divided into species and subspecies at a very remote period. The dominant peoples in each country, in each era, were the successful contestants in long conflicts for supremacy. Many races have vanished without leaving any traces beyond reversional strains which still come to the surface at times in families living to-day. The laws of evolution, only recently deciphered, are the sole means we possess for learning about many of the long-perished species of men.

A few races, too weak to ever gain supremacy and themselves to occupy districts, or countries, have survived by dwelling among stronger races. The Ainus, in Japan, and the Jews in Asia and Europe, are well-known examples.

Egypt, owing to its remarkable geographical situation between Asia, Europe, and the vast continent of Africa, has been a great highway for race migrations. Many peoples have lived and ruled there and passed on before incoming tides of new and more vigorous peoples. Each race, undoubtedly, during its residence in Egypt contributed to the general fund of Egyptian knowledge and customs and assisted in the development of science.

The tombs of Thebes have given us bodies of ancient Egyptians of more than six thousand years ago. At that time the people were characterized by the Grecian type of profile. They resembled the contemporary active peoples in India and Arabia and did not differ much from the Egyptians of our day. The incoming streams of people who settled in the Nile valley, both Asiatic and negroid, changed the appearance of the Egyptians at different times by intermarriage, but when their vigor waned and they were crowded out by other peoples, the Egyptians assumed their regular Semitic characteristics.

Egyptian history really begins with the old kingdom dynasties, about ten thousand years ago. The tombs of Abydos have furnished material for accounts of this early period. There were eight powerful kings in the first dynasty and all of them contributed to the advancement of civilization. Abydos, and later Memphis, were their principal cities. They ruled in great luxury and were patrons of the arts and sciences. The art works, sculptures, and carvings in ivory and ebony of this era speak in eloquent terms of the taste and high mental powers of the people. Modern museums are well supplied with relics of those times, which illustrate the degree of civilization attained by the Egyptians at the beginning of their history better than any written account.

The early Egyptians adopted the sciences, arts and customs of the Babylonians. With these as a basis the priests and learned men experimented and made many independent researches and discoveries.

The pyramids, erected near Cairo 3000 B. C., indicate the high degree of culture which the early Egyptians had attained. These renowned monuments to the kings were scientifically designed and constructed to exist for all time. In order to contribute to their usefulness, they were planned so as to exhibit correct geometrical forms and indicate the cardinal points of the compass and the positions of certain astronomical bodies. The details of their construction disclosed much mathematical, geometrical and physical knowledge, and their actual building called for not only an all-around mechanical skill but a high degree of engineering ability. They were constructed of various materials. Some large granite blocks were used in the outside walls and these were brought from the upper Nile. They were towed down the river on barges and were lifted into the positions in which they are found to-day. Various mortars and mortar mixtures were employed in binding the brickwork and masonry. These called for a good knowledge of chemistry and physics. The arches and sloping walls of some of the larger pyramids show how well the architects and engineers of the day knew their professions. With similar means in their possession, the best professional men of the present day would find it difficult to get such splendid results.

In the past few years, lapidaries and gem-workers have learned to cut stones and gems with steel disk-wheels, the cutting edges of which are furnished with carborundum or emery powder or insets of diamonds. The pyramid builders knew this method of sawing and cutting stones. They actually employed bronze saws set with diamonds to cut the huge blocks of granite, syenite, diorite, and basalt used in the construction of the pyramids. They also set the cutting ends of their rock drills with diamonds, and bored rocks as we do to-day with diamond core drills. The art of making these tools was afterward lost. Only within the past half-century have mechanical rock saws and diamond drills been reinvented. This brilliantly indicates the inventive ability of the engineers at the dawn of Egypt's history. The builders of the splendid monument of Rameses II in the Memnonium, at Thebes, which weighs 887 long tons, transported the huge stone by land from the quarries at E'Sooan, a distance of 138 miles. Such tasks appear never to have deterred early Egyptian engineers and architects. They were so sure of their ability to carry their great operations to satisfactory completion that they never hesitated in agreeing to the severest penalties for nonfulfillment of contract. Their cranes, levers, wedges, rock drills, pumps, air blowers and compressors, and building tools all showed how well mastered was their knowledge.

Their quarrying methods were similar to those used in the best practice to-day. When huge blocks and slabs of stone were needed the required dimensions were marked on the rock and channeled out. Metal wedges were forced into the channels and struck at once by a large number of hammers. The constant vibration, in time, broke off the stone with clean-cut surfaces. When these were to be carved into statuary or ornamental shapes it was often done at the quarries, so as to reduce transportation difficulties. Water transportation was used when possible. When the stone had to be moved over the desert sands it was lifted by cranes and set on sleds drawn by men or animals, or driven forward by levers, just as heavy steel machinery is moved by modern engineers.

The principle of the siphon was known to the Egyptians at an early period. It was employed daily in many homes for supplying water and for drawing off wine from barrels and tanks into domestic utensils. Its principal use, however, was in civil engineering works. Siphons were constructed on a large scale for furnishing water to villages, draining land for farming, and for irrigation purposes. They were built, in many known instances, for carrying large quantities of water, in high lifts, over hills.

Herodotus tells us that the science of geometry was discovered by the Egyptians as a result of the necessity for making annual surveys of the farming lands in the Nile valley.

When geometry was established as a practical science, land and astronomical surveying were simplified and many branches of mathematics were enlarged. The science of marine surveying was also developed and this led to a great improvement in map-making and in geography, in which the Egyptians became famous.

The skill attained by the Egyptians in land surveying required accurate surveying instruments. These were invented at an early period. The Greeks claim the invention of the theodolite and similar instruments, but Egyptian history shows that gnomons, surveying compasses, and levels were used by Egyptian surveyors long before the Greeks began to study the learning of Egypt.

Astronomical science made great progress in Egypt. The theory attributing to the sun the central place in our planetary system, now called the Copernican theory, was known and used in Egypt. They were familiar with the obliquity of the ecliptic, and knew that the Milky Way was an aggregation of numerous stars of various sizes. They understood that moonlight is simply the reflected light of the sun. The movements of comets, the positions of the principal stars and stellar constellations and other astronomical phenomena were studied and charted on astronomical maps or recorded and forecasted in astronomical tables.

The discoveries made by the Greek scientists naturally stimulated philosophical thought, which in turn reacted upon scientific experimentation and led to a broadening of the scope of general research work. We are dependent upon the pictorial records of early Egyptian times for descriptions of the instruments and machinery employed and these are not always clear. They indicate, however, that the Egyptians quickly learned the sciences developed by the Babylonians and other Oriental peoples and improved them. Their knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, geometry, chemistry, physics, medicine, and agriculture was extensive. The priests and learned men taught the pure sciences and constantly experimented; the engineers, architects, surveyors, and mechanics applied the sciences to the arts.