Monday, December 15, 2008

A cartouche is a written name similar to a nameplate. Egyptians believe that if you have a cartouche on your coffin when you died you won't disappear that is so cool. Pharaohs were the first to use this fine jewelery but later on in time people hired artisans to make them. The cartouche is a sign of wealthiness. It was also made from gold. So to basicaly sum this up if you were wealthy or a pharoah you get this shiny gold thing that spells your name in heiroglyphics. Now I see why they were so popular. These cartouches are very interesting and fun to learn about.

The Egyptians also created something similar to our paper. This special writing paper was known as a papyrus. Papyrus was made from reeds not from trees. Papyrus was not only used for paper. It was also used for baskets, sandals, mats and ropes. The papyrus was probably the most used thing in Egypt. I was very surprised to figure out that they were made from reeds. Over the years humans modified the papyrus and now use paper from trees.To me the paper made from reeds doesn't look very strong at all.

The Egyptians were some of the first people to create a writing system. The name of the writing is called hieroglyphics. The letters were based on pictures that stood for something. Example A is a vulture and L is a lion. If you ever try to write in hieroglyphics it is very hard at first but then you get used to it.

Friday, December 12, 2008




The Egyptians made one of the nicest sarcophagus (coffin) ever. These sarcophagus were usually for the Pharaohs and the wealthy. These were made to protect the body from the sun and jackals. If the sun can get to the body the body would decay. The Egyptians were one of the firsts to mummify their dead. The sarcophagus was usually buried in a tomb.

The shaduf was an important invention. The shaduf was made for irrigation. With this invention it made irrigating a lot easier. The shaduf is mainly made of wood, strings, and a bucket. This invention was very important because they had a very big flood just about every year. They needed something to transport the water to the crops.