Egyptian Technology Since Their Creation,

Egyptian Technology

Since their creation, the pyramids of Egypt have been a source of awe, wonder, and amazement, from both an artistic viewpoint as well as from a technological and archeological examination of their structure, creation, and form. Created for kings and built not by slaves but by loyal citizens of the pharaoh, these pyramids required a massive undertaking of not only man power, but true architectural genius and a highly skilled technical force that was responsible for their construction. Through an in depth look at the history of Egyptian technology, specifically in terms of the creation of the pyramids, it is easy to see how advanced this civilization was in terms of their architectural prowess as well as their command of quarrying, transportation, and tools necessary to build structures that have lasted several thousand years.

Ancient Egyptians were, even without including the pyramids, highly successful in terms of technological advancement. In the Early Dynastic period, from 2950-2575 B.C., the Egyptians were creating the capitol city of Memphis, designing underground burial tombs, practicing mummification, and using early forms of hieroglyphs (Baines). Further, these highly intellectual individuals developed, according to author Peter James, antibiotics (9), numerous surgical instruments (14), canals (88), automatically opening doors (122), plank built ships (83), black ink (94), and a host of other inventions. After improving stone working technologies in the Predynastic period (5,500-3,100 B.C.), the Egyptians of the Dynastic period discovered and improved masonry, allowing them to develop multiple artifacts of limestone, sandstone, granite, calcite, basalt, and quartzite. Those artifacts included statues, vessels, beads, sarcophagi, obelisks, and, of course, the pyramids (Stocks, 13).

Pyramid construction began in the Third Dynasty, classified as beginning in 2,650 B.C. (Baines), but it important to examine the reasons for the creation of pyramids and the history of their development prior to examining the pyramids themselves, in order to ensure a thorough understanding of the technological advancements in techniques. The Egyptian population believed firmly in a polytheistic religion that saw death as a transitional stage between this life and a better life. In order for a person to travel to the next life, and therefore achieve his or her true potential, the three portions of the soul, or the "ka," "ba" and "akh" had to remain intact, which required a fully preserved and intact physical body (Brier, 45). During a seventy day process, the body's organs were removed and stored in canopic jars, the body was washed and then packed with a salt, left for forty days, and then filled with linen or sawdust, resin, and natron (Brier, 45-50). It was then wrapped in bandages with jewelry, amulets, and other possessions wrapped between layers (Brier, 54). The idea was that these possessions, and any in the near vicinity of the body, would travel with the person, whose body was intact thanks to mummification, into the afterlife.

Originally, the Egyptians began redesigning basic grave structures due to high levels of looting and destruction of existing graves of kings. Considerable resources were therefore devoted to obtaining a way of preserving the mummified body and securing his or her possessions, and the technological advancements that developed in Egypt during this time were primary done for that purpose alone. It is only over the course of time that such technologies began to benefit general society (David, a.R., 22).

The first of these new burial structures was that of the mastaba, seen in the First Dynasty (2950 B.C.), nearly 300 years before the first modern pyramids (Stocks, 13). Mastabas were made of mud-brick, and consisted of a burial chamber, into which the mummified body was placed. Around this area, within a flat roofed rectangular structure, a kind of house was built, with divided chambers representing various rooms within the dwelling, all of which were connected to the entrance (David, Rosalie, 9).

By the Second and Third Dynasty, the Egyptians noted this method, which somewhat successful, offered little protection for the physical body, since the chambers were often being looted by robbers or ravaged by animals. As a result, the burial chamber began to be dug out underground, with the superstructure for belongings built on top, and the two connected to one another and the entrances through shafts. Additionally, the structure on top of the burial chamber began to be built using stone rubble, faced with brick (David, a.R., 22).

By the Third Dynasty, however, this method also failed, in that as technology for building burial chambers improved, so did technologies used by tomb robbers (David, a.R., 22). The materials used needed to be updated, as did the design of the tomb to help reduce animal destruction and robbery. In the 27th century B.C., it is believed an architect known as Imhotep built what is now thought to be the first of the pyramid forms, the step pyramid, for ruler Djoser, or Zoser. In order to further protect the burial chamber and the possessions within the tomb, Imhotep layered mastabas on top of one another, from largest to smallest, in six layers (David, a.R., 24). The underground chamber was square, and 28 meters underground. The entrance is sealed with a three ton piece of granite. The structure was built in three stages, hence the step form of the architecture. Eventually, this first pyramid stood 60 meters high, contained over 850,000 tons of stone which was excavated and quarried within a lifetime, and was encased in fine Tura limestone (Rice, 103). By far, this was the most impressive architectural burial tomb at the time in ancient Egypt.

It is clear that the development of better architecture and stone usage was highly related to the development of the pyramid, which brings us to the final forms of the pyramid and the primary focus of this paper, those of the bent pyramid of Dahshur, and the red pyramid, both built by pharaoh Snefru in the Fourth Dynasty (2575 B.C.). The bent pyramid is named because of the less steep incline used at the bottom of the pyramid in comparison to the top portion. The angle of the top of the pyramid was used as the base angle for the red pyramids, or those found at Giza for pharaoh Khufu (Woldering, 70). These tombs were elaborate in detail, with hidden chambers, false passageways, false burial chambers, shafts leading to nowhere, vastly complex subdivisions of stories-high layers of rooms, and other ingenious architectural wonders. Many used several hundred thousand tons of stone, rock and limestone, all of which had to be quarried, transported, and then lifts to dizzying heights without modern tools.

To achieve such an awesome display of money, power, and prestige was no simple feat. Even before the physical building could begin, the pyramid had to be carefully planned out by the architect. The plans were designed on papyrus, and revised as building proceeded on flat limestone slabs. In some cases, models were even used, as is shown by the archeological evidence found at the Pyramid of Amenemhet III which consisted of a limestone model of one of the substructures. It is clear from the remains of these plans that the ancient Egyptians had a large knowledge of mathematics that allowed them to develop technologies at a rapid pace. The mathematical equations incorporated decimals, fractions, calculations for the areas of triangles, circles, and the surfaces of shapes, as well as geometrical equations for angles, lengths, width, height, and even Pythagorean's theorem (Verner, 55). They also understood astronomy, in that most archeologists agree they would have used stellar measurements to make buildings conform to primary coordinates (Verner, 57).

Once planned, the site had to be located. The reasons for choices of location differ by author, but several agree that area of royal residences, limitations of areas of previous burial sites, and proximity to limestone quarries all played a part in the decision to locate a pyramid in a specific spot (Verner, 56). On the site, the planners then marked out a reference line along true north, and created a true square from that line using, some believe, a Pythagorean triangle method of measurement. This technique uses three equal units on one side, four on the next, and five on the hypotenuse of the triangle to give a true right angle. This was then repeated to make a four sided square marker for the base of the pyramid (Brunes, 331).

Next, the pyramid architects needed laborers. For many years, historians believed the pyramids were built using slave labor. However, over the last several centuries, new evidence has shown these individuals were not slaves in the purest sense of the word. Now, many believe that most of the workforce was made of recruited peasants, or appointed slaves of the wealthy (David, a.R., 58). Each citizen, it is believed, was required to work for the state for a given number of days each year. Those who could afford to were allowed to send their own workers in their place, but those who could not performed much of the building of the pyramids. These laborers built towns near the pyramid, and were provided food and housing for the duration of their work. This labor force was effective, unified, and provided a strong centralized state. The pyramids acted not as slave pits, but as political, religious, social, and economic focuses for the people. Laborers believed their own eternity would be won through their service, and although their choices of work and location were based on socioeconomic factors, these individuals were free citizens of the state (David, a.R., 58).

In addition to the peasant labor, there were professional craftsmen and architects whose skills were required for the more finely detailed and skilled areas of the pyramid. These individuals had their own housing area within the barracks, and were treated to slightly nicer conditions than those of the slaves. They were also, some believed paid wages in exchange for their skills, since such skills were learned and honed only through repetition and higher learning, as opposed to the unskilled labor of the peasant force. These laborers too believed, however, that they were ensuring their own eternity through their service to the states and to the pharaoh (Davis, a.R., 59).

Next, these workers required materials in order to make the pyramid. Most were built with a wide variety of stone materials, and while much of it was lower grade limestone for interior pyramid core, fine limestone was used for the final casting, both inside and out (Nicholson & Shaw, 4). Pink granite was also used for the inside walls, and basalt and alabaster were used for floors (Nicholson & Shaw, 5). Additionally, gemstones were in high demand for the creation of the jeweled amulets that were worn by the deceased (Nicholson & Shaw, 6).

Egypt, at the time, was fairly wealthy in terms of their abundance of stone, particularly limestone, or what the Egyptians called "white stone," and sandstone. Limestone was first used in the pyramids of the Saqqara, which are some of the oldest known. The limestone there is of a lower quality, but is strong, with layers as much as a meter thick, making it much simpler to quarry, and it could be quarried near the building sites (Verner, 61). Sandstone was used in the middle of the second millennium during the New Kingdom (Verner, 62).

Limestone and sandstone best for quarrying was that of uniform coloration and at least moderate hardness, with thick layers and spaced fractures within the rock. Blocks were marked out with spaces between to allow workers access to cut the blocks. Using tools such as copper pickaxes and chisels, granite hammers, large stone chisels, the workers would cut holes into the rocks along the required lines. Very dry wooden or later, iron wedges, were placed into the holes. The wooden wedges were then soaked, so their expanding mass would break through the softer stone (David, a.R., 49). In the case of harder stone, iron wedges were used to force the rock apart using leverage (Nicholson & Shaw, 7).

While this process was simple enough for limestone and sandstone, since there was an abundance of the material, finer white limestone, pink granite, basalt, and alabaster were much more difficult, in that the rock was much harder, heavier, and had to be transported much further distances to reach the work site (Verner, 62). In terms of these hard, heavy stones, much of which is only found on the west bank of the Nile, the quality stone was buried under the surface. In this case, steps were first carved into the outer face of the rock, and then a corridor would be carved along the ceiling of the galley, which allowed them to cut down behind the top layer of rocks (Nicholson & Shaw, 6).

Generally, in these cases, large, unfinished chunks of stone were removed from the galley, and then refined outside prior to transportation. The removal involved a series of logs leading to the quarry that were arranged to aid in the dragging of the stones (David, a.R., 49). Ropes were tied to the stones, and laborers and oxen pulled the stones from the quarry. Once outside, again using copper or bronze chisels and diorite picks (David, a.R., 50), the workers would cut down the large chunks into the appropriate sized building blocks required. These blocks were then finely sanded down using sandstone blocks (David, a.R., 49).

Once refined, or sometimes in their raw form, these huge, heavy masses of rock had to be moved from the quarry site to the work site. These transportation methods varied depending on the stone being moved, as well as the quarry site and the building location. In general, however, there were two methods of transportation, those of the river, and land transport (Nicholson & Shaw, 17). In terms of river transportation, large barges were constructed of wood, and artificial canals were created along the Nile to create passable waterways in a variety of different directions. Floods were highly useful, in that the waterways could be used for longer distances, reducing the need for land travel which tended to be much more difficult, and more expensive (Verner, 65).

However, even when using the rivers, land transportation of materials was inevitable. Crude roads, sometimes expansive in nature, were built to and from the river from the building site. This often included covering sand or harder rock grounds with layers of mud to facilitate the movement of the rock. Drystone causeways were also built (Nicholson & Shaw, 20). Wheeled vehicles were not used in Egypt until much later, and as such, sledges were often used. These sledges, loaded with tons of rock, were pulled to the work site using man power and tow-ropes or oxen (David, a.R., 49).

Once the materials had been moved to the site, they had to be raised to the layer of the pyramid being worked on. Historians such as Herodotus originally explained that the first few layers were simple, with small, short wooden ramps extending around each side of the layer, and stairs leading to the level. Each stone was thus raised to the first step, lifted up the scaffolding using lifting devices, and raised to the second step and so forth until it reached the destination (Chapter 125). This idea is supported in that small models of wooden cradles and lever-pulley systems have been found near pyramid sites (Verner, 82). However, such systems would not have been strong enough to support the movement of huge, heavy blocks required for some areas of the pyramid.

As a result, and after finding several archeological sites with existing remains, the use of large, long, constantly extending ramps is supported. However, there are many different types of ramps suggested by historians, and to further complicate possibilities, the remnants of ramps found at ancient sites are of varying designs. It is generally agreed on that the ramps had an exterior wall and a framework made of mudbricks. The interior wall, then, was filled with a substance such as small pebbles, sand, or other rubble, and covered in clay or another mud form (Verner, 86). This added to the support of the ramp, and made it suitable for moving tons of stone.