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[QUOTE]Originally posted by zarahan- aka Enrique Cardova: [QB] [b]Sudanic inheritances of Ancient Egypt - Vogel[/b] QUOTE: "The period when sub-Saharan Africa was most influential in Egypt was a time when neither Egypt, as we understand it culturally, nor the Sahara, as we understand it geographically, existed. Populations and cultures now found south of the desert roamed far to the north. The culture of Upper Egypt, which became dynastic Egyptian civilization, could fairly be called a Sudanese transplant. Egypt rapidly found a method of disciplining the river, the land, and the people to transform the country into a titanic garden. Egypt rapidly developed detailed cultural forms that dwarfed its forebears in urbanity and elaboration. Thus, when new details arrived, they were rapidly adapted to the vast cultural superstructure already present. On the other hand, pharaonic culture was so bound to its place near the Nile that its huge, interlocked religious, administrative, and formal structures could not be readily transferred to relatively mobile cultures of the desert, savanna, and forest. The influence of the mature pharaonic civilizations of Egypt and Kush was almost confined to their sophisticated trade goods and some significant elements of technology. Nevertheless, the religious substratum of Egypt and Kush was so similar to that of many cultures in southern Sudan today that it remains possible that fundamental elements derived from the two high cultures to the north live on." -- FROM: "(Egypt and Sub-Saharan Africa: Their Interaction. Encyclopedia of Pre-colonial Africa, by Joseph O. Vogel, AltaMira Press, (1997), pp. 465-472) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [IMG]http://imageshack.us/scaled/large/716/c5i9.jpg[/IMG] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [b]"Homegrown" Ancient Egyptian technology -far from "unchanging" or "static"[/b] Ancient Egyptians pioneered numerous technologies and were not "static" and "unchanging", but show a number of innovations. For example, in addition to the wheel for pottery from very early on, there were pulleys to hand the carcasses of animals to be processed and lathes (Ian Shaw 2003, Ancient Egyptian Materials and technology). Wheeled vehicles from Egypt appear in the record as early as the 13th Dynasty, not as fancy Hyskos chariots but as wheeled sleds. QUOTE: [i] "Interestingly, earliest representation of wheeled vehicle from Egypt (tomb of Sebeknekht at El Kab, Dynasty XIII) shows sledge, mounted on four disk wheels rather than rollers."[/i] -- Wheeled vehicles and ridden animals in the ancient Near East (1997), By M. A. Littauer, J. H. Crouwel ------------------------------------- [b]Use of the wheel in the Nile Valley- more data[/b] "Much earlier forerunners are shown in tomb paintings of the late Old Kingdom and the 11th Dynasty showing siege towers with wheels; depictions of movable siege towers exist from the 6th Dynasty onwards.) This indicates that the wheel was used in the transport if heavy loads more frequently than assumed.. The use of wheeled equipment in building is not yet attested to but may have been fairly common. The soft surface of the desert sand and the mid of the cultivation may have been a serious obstacle for heavy carriages but not so much for sledges." --The encyclopaedia of ancient Egyptian architecture By Dieter Arnold. 2002. p 195 -------------------------- "In all probability wheels would have been of little practical use, for the building blocks used were far too large and too heavy to be carried on a wooden-wheeled cart. The relative scarcity of wood in ancient Egypt would have made the building of such carts difficult and overcoming the practical and technical difficulties of building carts to carry and move great weights would have probably proved impossible. Wheels would have been, in any event, a far from practical method of transport on either agricultural land or the desert where they would have become quickly bogged down in either mud or sand." --R. Partridge. (1996) Transport in ancient Egypt. p76 --------------------------------------------------------------- [b]CHANGING INNOVATIONS IN BUILDING CK TECHNOLOGY Egyptians pioneered in the use of stone, a more difficult material to work with, compared to the mud-brick of Mesopotamia. The massive works of polished granite and limestone show a skill and craftsmanship beyond anything from contemporary Mesopotamia. And that is not even getting into the mathematical, engineering and astronomical knowledge that came with the package. Ramps in raising huge monuments and buildings were a sophisticated adaptation with at least 5 different types of ramps in use to supplement log rollers, ropes and sledges.[/b] As one historian notes: "The Egyptians advanced beyond the Mesopotamians in another area: vaulting. They used the tunnel or barrel vault as their Near Eastern counterparts did, but they added a new style called the corbel vault that creates arches using stones that jut out to support other stones. What this indicates is that Egyptians builders were not determined in their architectural structures by other civilisations or influences. another example of this is the innovative cantilevered beams over the King's Chamber in Giza pyramid. The pent roof distributes weight and stress in a new way. In other words, Egypt had skilful engineers who created new types of architectural supporting systems." [/QB][/QUOTE]
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