596 inventions: The Middle East PYRAMID AND TEMPLE CONSTRUCTION It is almost impossible to see an Egyptian pyramid or temple without wondering about the methods used in their founding and construction Of all of the inventions ascribed to the Egyptians, some techniques have hardly been surpassed The massive amounts of stone needed for such projects was cut from quarries, moved to the construction site, and placed with great precision There has been a great deal of discussion and speculation about how the blocks of stone, often weighing many tons, were handled Some of the theories have been very imaginative, but the simple answers seem to be the best Egyptologists have used the scant information available to deduce the ancient methods These clues consist of paintings in tombs and the remains of temporary ramps In a tomb in Middle Egypt there is a painting of a gigantic statue being moved It rests on a sled being pulled with ropes by hundreds of men Standing on the front of the sled is a workman pouring a liquid on the ground to lubricate the way The liquid may be milk, oil, beer, or simply water There is no written evidence to tell us, but there are also no rollers or wheels beneath the sled In another tomb on the west bank at Luxor (ancient Thebes) is a representation of pieces of stone being moved up an inclined ramp In the first court of the great temple of the god Amun at Karnak part of the mud-brick and rubble ramp used to construct the pylon gateway is still preserved Taking the tomb paintings with the remains of actual ramps, it has generally been concluded that there was nothing particularly mysterious about construction techniques It simply required careful planning, ramps that would later be dismantled, and the use of massive manpower The construction of a pyramid might have required long ramps that extended far into the desert or a series of shorter ramps that were placed against the four sides This method is still debated by historians However, scholars generally agree on the method of constructing a temple, with its gigantic walls and columns The first course of stone for walls and columns was put into place, looking like a three-dimensional plan of the finished structure Then the enclosed space was filled with earth and debris to the level of the tops of the stone This made a flat platform on which the next layer of stone could be moved and placed When that layer was finished, the filling was repeated, and this continued until the roofing blocks were in place Then the process was reversed The fill inside the top of the building was removed, and the decoration of carving and painting was begun This continued downward until the building was completed, level by level This technique was simple and slow, but it also made it unnecessary to use scarce wood for scaffolding during construction and decoration When heated, the material hardened, and the surface developed a colored glaze The material is known from many examples of amulets (charms), scarabs (the figure of a beetle used as a charm), and small sculpture, as well as containers such as cups and bowls Probably the best-known and most characteristic invention of the ancient Egyptians was the process of mummification The Egyptian belief in life after death required that the body of the deceased be preserved as a resting place for the spirit Early in Egyptian history it was determined that the body had to be treated to prevent decay This process, as it evolved, was essentially one of desiccation, or drying out Since the internal organs were apt to decay rapidly, they had to be removed and treated separately An incision was made in the side so the lungs, liver, intestines, and stomach could be taken out The body was cleaned and packed in a material that would draw out any remaining fluids When this was accomplished, it was wrapped in many layers of linen cloth and put into one or more coffins, usually with the face of the deceased on the lid The organs were placed in a set of four containers and buried with the coffin The process developed over the centuries of Egyptian history, generally becoming more elaborate THE MIDDLE EAST BY MARK ANTHONY PHELPS Inventions made in the ancient Near East encompassed agricultural processes, technology, and intellectual life The Neolithic (or agricultural) Revolution occurred fi rst in this region The hallmarks of the Neolithic Revolution were the cultivation of plants and selective breeding of animals, which gave humans more control over the production of food Einkorn and emmer wheat were the first plants to be domesticated, the former by the Natufian culture of Israel and the latter at Umm Dabaghiyah in Syria, both around 9000 b.c.e Wine appeared by 6000 b.c.e in Iran and Mesopotamia, and by the same date lentils were prevalent throughout Southwest Asia Goats and sheep were domesticated in Iran and Afghanistan by 9000 b.c.e., and pigs and cattle in Anatolia by 7000 b.c.e Dogs had been domesticated in Israel and Kurdistan since around 12,000 b.c.e The wheat domesticated by the early farmers may have included forms of the grain that were not intended as food, as one ancient source states that 40 percent of the harvest went for the production of beer, which had made its appearance by 8000 b.c.e