Hey, Smarty Pants. As you can hear, I'm playing video games with my niece.
Today's game is Adventures in Ancient Egypt.
Ooh, look, we found a pyramid.
Sweet, let's go down these stairs and see if we can dig up some treasure.
I found an ox-driven plow and a clock and toothpaste, huh?
Today, you'll find references to ancient Egypt all over the place in video games, movies, music, even dance moves.
I think ancient Egypt is fascinating.
You're not alone. Archaeologists, scientists who study the past, anthropologists, scientists who study past civilizations, and astronomers, scientists who study the universe have all learned a ton from studying Egypt's history.
But have you heard of Egyptologists?
Huh? Archaeologists devote their entire careers exclusively to the study of Egypt.
Exploring its history, language, literature, religion, architecture, arts, and sciences.
I've seen some cool Egyptian artifacts at the museum.
So why are you and so many people fascinated by ancient Egypt?
Well, for an ancient civilization, they sure figured out a lot of stuff we used today.
True. But what exactly have we learned from the ancient Egyptians?
Mysteries are still left to discover.
Hey, watch out for that money.
It's time for another whiff of science and history on Hell Smart Egg.
No! The mummy dragged me off to do that!
The land of the dead! This pyramid level is hard trusty narrator.
I think I'll get a snack and try again later.
Or we could talk about the intrepid or brave archaeologists who traveled across the desert to discover the tombs of ancient Egypt and unlock clues about the past.
Ooh, I'd like that. Wait, mummy don't come after you in real life, right?
No, mummies won't come after you, unless you count the curse of mummy puts on you for disturbing their tomb.
But that's just superstition.
So what are mummies? A mummy is a person or animal whose body has been dried out and preserved after death.
Whoa. In ancient Egypt, this was mostly reserved for royalty or the most wealthy.
Ah. One of the most famous mummies, King Tutankhammon, was unearthed by British Egyptologist Howard Carter in 1922.
Oh, we learned about King Tut.
He was only nine years old when he became Pharaoh of Egypt.
I'm 13 and I can't even win this Egypt video game.
Sadly, Tut only lived to age 19.
Then he was traditionally mummified and because he was Pharaoh, he was buried with all kinds of artwork, jewelry and gold.
Ooh, I hope I find that in the game.
Well, there are lots of tomb raiders looking for treasure.
Some of the most truly treasured objects discovered by Egyptologists are ones that give us an understanding of the ancient Egyptians' culture and ingenuity.
Oh, yeah. Like what? For example, one of the very first scientists to excavate a tomb in Egypt was Scottish archaeologist Alexander Henry Rind in the 1850s.
Oh, I'm excited. This tomb here in Thames had been reused for thousands of years before it was sold.
Oh, we can learn so much.
Wait, who put this bowl here?
Huh? What about this statue?
In which precise location was this first notice?
Uh, everyone, stop digging.
Starting out, we need to keep detailed records of everything we find and where we found it.
This way historians can piece together the clues and learn about this ancient civilization.
Huh? Just be careful, Turchin, things.
Oops. Sorry. Thanks to Rind and other Egyptologists after him, we have a good idea how ancient Egyptians lived.
The timeline of ancient Egypt is widely thought to begin around 4300 BCE, the pre-dynastic period, and end about 5,000 years later, about 642 CE.
The death of Queen Cleopatra VII in 31 BCE, worked the end of Egypt's Dynastic era, a United Egypt ruled by Pharaohs.
But many Egyptian traditions still continued, as Egypt was absorbed by, who?
Was it A, the Greek Empire?
D, the Roman Empire? Or C, the Galactic Empire?
Shout your answer, Smarty Pants.
I say, the Roman Empire.
Correct. And during those 5,000 years, the ancient Egyptians were able to establish lots of traditions and invent a ton of things, many of which we still use today.
Really? Like what? I could tell you, or we could make a game out of it.
Smarty Pants, play along.
I'm going to name some inventions, and you call out the ones you think were invented by the ancient Egyptians.
Ready? Here we go. The pyramids.
Writing. Papyrus paper.
The wheel. Black ink. The oxygen plow.
The sickle. Irrigation.
The Shadouf. The calendar.
Freeze dry. Clock. The police.
Surgical instruments.
Makeup. The abacus. Wigs.
Toothpaste. Momification.
emojis. Of the 20 cool inventions I just named, 16 are attributed to the ancient Egyptians.
Of the ones that weren't, the wheel is thought to have been invented in lower Mesopotamia, which is modern-day Iraq, and later introduced to Egypt.
I call it the wheel. The abacus is a Chinese invention, and the technique of freeze drying was created by the Incas of South America.
emojis are considered to have been created by a Japanese artist in the 1990s.
But the Egyptians did have hieroglyphics.
They're kind of like early emojis.
Oh, I like how you think.
But wait, what about some of those weird ones?
What's a Shadouf? A Shadouf is a counterbalanced bucket used for drawing water from the ground.
That, along with the sickle, ablaid for cutting grass or wheat.
The Oxdrone plow. And the irrigation system were all created to make farming easier.
It's better to work smarter than harder.
But wait, isn't Egypt mostly desert?
How are they farming? Smirking.
The mouth or delta of the Nile River, the giant river cutting across Egypt, has long been considered one of the best places to grow a wide variety of foods.
It is often referred to as part of the fertile crescent.
Ah. And, by inventing the calendar, the Egyptians were able to keep track of the agricultural cycle.
For example, they noticed that when the Nile flooded every year, it coincided with the appearance of the star Sirius.
By keeping track of changes in the night sky, Egyptians created a pretty solid 365-day calendar to keep track of seasonal cycles.
Cool. Ancient Egyptians were also very interested in taking care of their physical health and appearance.
They created a toothpaste recipe, a mix of rock salt, dried iris flour, black pepper grains, and mint to maintain their pearly white grins.
They even wrote down how to brush instructions.
First like an Egyptian.
Did you also say Egyptians invented wigs and make-up?
Yep. Egyptians created wigs out of human and horse hair, wool and plant fibers, and used beeswax to hold them in place.
This gave wealthy Egyptians many fashion options, especially in the hot summer months when most Egyptians shaved their heads to avoid lice and stay cool.
Whoa. I make-up worn by both men and women as far back as 4000 BCE was usually black or green, a mixture of various minerals.
It was thought to prevent or cure eye disease and protect people from evil.
How does wearing eye makeup protect you from evil or cure eye diseases?
Explore Alex. You got this?
Well, from what we discovered, the ancient Egyptian of religion was tied into most cultural practices.
It's a polytheistic religion, meaning it has many different gods and goddesses collectively known as deities, around 2000 we know about.
These deities represented all different facets of life, nature, different professions, even specific villages.
You mean like ISIS, the goddess of abundance, Ra, the sun god, and Osiris, the ruler of the underworld?
Smart kid. Egyptians believed the symbol of the eye reflected evil back upon the person or people who wished to harm and they thought the minerals in the eye makeup warded off bacteria.
Despite some unscientific beliefs, ancient Egyptians did have many highly scientific innovations.
For example, surgical instruments like scalples, scissors, forceps, and copper needles, along with written instructions for how to do various surgeries, show that Egyptians have strong medical practices, perform surgeries, and sutured or stitched up wounds.
Building pyramids was also impressive for early engineers.
Absolutely. The first known pyramid was built for King's Osir, around 2650 BCE, and obelisks.
Tall stone pillars were used as giant sun dials, by tracking the shadow cast by the sun as it moved throughout the day.
These later, Egyptians created water clocks by putting a small hole in the bottom of a stone vessel.
The water would drip at a constant rate, allowing them to keep track of time.
One way we know so much about the ancient Egyptians is that they kept excellent records.
They created paper from the stoke of the papyrus water plant, an ink from vegetable gum, and beeswax, by developing a consistent, hieroglyphic alphabet.
The writings of the Egyptians are well preserved and able to be deciphered today.
And since they were experts at mummifying their dead, the well preserved bodies and tombs can be examined to learn a person's age, gender, and social status.
We can also learn about their family, profession, injuries, what they ate, and even their pets.
Goes burial traditions were so important.
Many Egyptian tombs contain art, tools, instruments, and remains of food and drink.
Oh, things they thought might be useful in the afterlife.
No way. Since most tombs were built underground, sometimes connected by a series of tunnels, the shifting deserts sounds quickly hid the entrances, keeping them a mystery for centuries.
Most remained unexplored and undamaged.
So entering them is like taking a high machine back to the year 2000 BCE.
Cool. Is there still a lot left to explore in ancient Egypt?
Great question. The answer?
Right after this quick break.
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Thanks. Now back to who's smarted.
Nice. I just leveled up and became a member of the Egyptian Police Force.
I've got a staff and a dog to protect myself.
A centralized police force helped ancient Egyptians maintain order and enforce laws.
Sometimes the threat of death without proper burial was enough to keep citizens in line.
What? The human priests and priestesses performed rituals, maintained the temples, and acted as representatives of the many deities.
And the Pharaoh, or leader, was considered godlike and the supreme ruler.
Ooh, I just found a scarab amulet.
It says scarabs are beetles that were popular symbols of good fortune.
Nice. I wonder what else I might find.
Well, I don't know about the game, but in real life an archaeologist's team recently found the Lost Golden City of Ate.
In an area called the Valley of the Kings.
Amazing. The Egyptologist heading the excavation says it's the largest ancient city ever uncovered in Egypt.
Wow. There's a lot left to discover.
Yep. There's even an underwater archaeological excavation going on in the harbor of Alexandria, once home to one of the greatest libraries and the location of the lighthouse of Alexandria, which is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
I think I want to skip the game and travel to Egypt and see it all myself.
Great idea. Of course, there's one thing you'll only find in the game.
What's that? A mummy. Run.
A big overseas shoutout to Kai in London, who wrote to say, who smarted makes me smarter every day.
I love it. Well, we love having you, smarting with us, Kai.
Here's to lots more listening, laughing and learning every day.
This episode, ancient Egypt, was written by Libby War and voiced by Gia Davis, Tanya Garland, Adam Text Davis, and Jerry Colbert.
Technical direction and sound design by Josh Hahn.
Who smarted is recorded and mixed at the Relic Room Studios.
Our associate producer is Max Kamaski, the theme song is by Brian Suarez, with lyrics written and performed by Adam Text Davis.
Who smarted was created and produced by Adam Text Davis and Jerry Colt.
This has been an atomic entertainment production.
