EGYPTIAN ENGINEERING

Egyptian Engineering



Egyptian Engineering

Introduction

Technology, or if one prefers engineering, is a function of societal values. While modern philosophers continue to debate whether technology shapes society or whether society shapes technology, the development of engineering and the science over 5,000 years ago in ancient Egypt vividly demonstrates the extent to which technology can have practical social and religious bases. Unlike the Greeks, who later benefited from the advances of Egyptian and Mesopotamian scholars and who developed an abstract theory of knowledge, the Egyptians used knowledge for the practical accomplishment of goals tied to their religious worldview. An examination of Egyptian engineering and science, principally during the Old Kingdom (c. 2670-2150 BCE) and Middle Kingdom (c. 2040-1650 BCE) shows that religion drove the development of, and was reflected by, their monumental architecture. These architectural wonders served as a societal organizing principle and demonstrated the power of the state, which was believed to be run by either an incarnate god on earth or the son of a heavenly god. In addition, the supporting sciences, such as mathematics, astronomy, geography, and medicine all had practical purposes in support of the Egyptian religious worldview. One also finds that the most accomplished practitioners of engineering and science were accorded high status as priests and established a role model for later cult heroes. Finally, one can observe how ancient Egyptian engineering and science, and the storehouse of knowledge in Alexandria, formed a foundation for the classical Greek mathematical philosophers of the Hellenistic Age.

Egypt's Early Development

The land of Egypt (Kemet) emerged from the waters of the Nile's marshes and lakes about ten thousand years ago. The habitable Egypt developed about 8,000 BCE after the deposit of alluvium from the Nile's source in Upper Egypt, to the south, in modern Sudan. (Davidson 28). The Nile Valley is a strip of green hemmed in by the Sahara Desert to the west, mountains to the south, the Red Sea to the east, and the Mediterranean to the north. It forms a narrow strip twelve to twenty five miles wide and hundreds of miles long . The geological and archaeological history of ancient Egypt, even in Stone Age times, showed how favorable conditions for farming and settlement allowed the ancients to change their way of life, and in the process, they gradually became different from their ancestors and the nearby nomadic tribes.

Egypt's Religious Worldview

Religion and rituals also played a fundamental role in the life of Egypt. Given its precarious dependence on water from cyclical Nile River flooding and the critical nature of the rebirth of crops, it is not surprising that Egyptian religion dominated so many aspects of society. The war chief of the Falcon clan, who first united the valley of the Nile, became thought of as a god, because he controlled the river's gift of fertility, enforced submission, and exacted tribute from every dweller on the river's banks (Derry 7). Religious centers acted as focal points for the surrounding regions and concentrated wealth and power through gifts to the ...