Ancient Egypt - Technical
by Shirley Martinson
he skill and technique of Ancient
Egyptians was extraordinary considering the tools and resources that were
used. People located in the smaller villages are mostly
concerned with agriculture. Men work in fields with their
long tunics (galla bi yahs)
tucked up around the waist. With tools such as the hoe
(fas) and sickle (minijal);
occasionally an animal pulled plow is seen. Agriculture in
Egypt is almost totally dependent on the Nile. The fertile
strip of the Nile offers the only possible resource. The
people congregated on the steep banks of the river despite
its annual floods and shifting marshlands. The dependency on
the Nile is not only for the irrigation necessary to raise
crops, but also for the topsoil deposited annually by the
floods. Every year from July to October the Nile River
valley is gradually flooded. Its annual cycle of flooding
and the depositing of silt creates a new layer of topsoil
each year. This topsoil is rich in organic nutrients and
nitrogen. By October the waters begin to recede, leaving
behind pools of water in depressed areas of the floodplain.
After the water subsides enough to let the remaining water
be absorbed by the soil, the Egyptians would plant their
crops in the mud.
The first builders used the silt from the Nile, which was available
in great quantities. The peasant’s (fellah’s) homes have walls
constructed from bundles of reeds coated with a mixture of
chopped straw and argillaceous mud taken from
nearby irrigation ditches. The roofs were covered with palm fronds
to provide them with protection from the sun and from
extreme temperatures.
The Ancient Egyptians also required more protection from the
elements for their dead. The tombs could not withstand the
weight from the blowing and drifting sand that was deposited
on top of the tombs. The tombs were originally marked with
bench like monuments but something stronger was needed. At
first, a sun-dried mudbrick was sufficient but later on
hardier materials were used along with new techniques. These
techniques include the use of such things as the lever, roller,
inclined plane and possibly a long copper saw. These tools
enabled the Egyptians to erect immense monuments in the
desert.
After the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by King
Menes (3200 BC) and the establishment of the capital at
Memphis, he is credited for beginning construction of basins
to contain the flood water, digging canals and irrigation
ditches to reclaim the marshland. By 2500 BC an extensive
network of canals, ditches, dikes, and levees are
built. The first uses of stone in the construction
of the pyramids are seen. The stone came from the quarries and mines in
Sinai and Nubia
where the Egyptians frequently mined for gold and
copper also. The workers in the quarries had an ingenious
way of excavating stone from the quarries. First, the
workers would split off large pieces of limestone from the
walls of the quarry by inserting wedges of dry wood into
small holes punched into the surface of the rock. This had
the same effect as forming a dotted line. When the wood
wedges got wet they would expand and break off large pieces
of rock which could then be transported. The large blocks
were cut into smaller blocks of equal size. To achieve a consistent
average size for the small blocks the craftsmen implored a
variety of tools and methods. Tools such as, hammers and
cutting instruments made from copper, flint, and other types
of hard stone. When the blocks were finished they could be
shipped by boats and barges on the Nile to the piers
of the valley temples along the river.
Teams of workers, harnessed to sledges, then dragged the
blocks over a moist layer of silt to keep the runners
sliding. The blocks were then pulled up ramps toward the
construction site. As the pyramid grew, the blocks needed to be
hauled up higher and higher. Engineers faced the problem of
how to slide the blocks over the sharp angles of the
pyramid. Their solution was, to construct large platforms at
all four corners to permit the installation of the granite
ashlars that form the entire façade. The workmen could then
gradually dress and polish the casing starting at the summit
and working down toward the base. Buried deep within the
pyramid directly above the burial chamber a high chamber is
built to aid in the even distribution of pressure. This
required stone lintels that must have created problems
without lifting devices. The inner chambers are covered with
immense ashlars of Aswan granite weighing tens of tons.
In the Western desert the villages were not compact, but
instead scattered over the oases surrounded by green patches
of cultivation, and separated by patches of sand. These were
known as crop basins resulting from the basin irrigation
used for watering crops. Basin irrigation is a style of
irrigation that goes with the natural flow of the Nile. A
system of crop basins are connected by a network of dikes
and levees, which in turn are connected to canals. The
canals are dug from the river through the basins networking
them in series. The entrances are blocked until word is
received from the city of Nubia and other southern cities
that the flooding has begun. This signalled the cresting of
the Nile in the north was forthcoming. After the basins are
filled for a period of time the canals are then blocked up
again. By using old abandoned river beds that run parallel
to the Nile along the valley floor serving as dikes and
levees. By connecting these dikes and levees in series
running east to west the enclosed rectangular crop basins
are formed.
Some of the largest temples that were built held a sacred
lake made from a large rectangular pool where priests
performed purification rites and rituals involving the
sacred barque. The temples
built along the Nile had steps
leading down to the river to measure the water level. The
Egyptians used a device called a nilometer to record the
level of the river during the inundation. Nilometers were
staircases that descended into the Nile with marks
indicating various levels above the low water mark. This
served as a basis for calculating the taxes.•
(NB! The picture of the Sphinx at Giza above shows
it as it appeared before the excavation of the lower portion
of the monument.)
