Ancient Technology

When Egyptologists first began studying the writing system of the ancient Egyptians, they were faced with a bewildering array of different glyphs to decipher. In the course of this ongoing process, various descriptions and attributes have been discussed and assigned to each of these glyphs.

The common preconception that the ancient Egyptian civilisation was not technologically advanced, combined with the era in which our modern descriptions were first set out (19th century), has led to a misunderstanding of the symbolism present in the written language of hieroglyphs.

The time has come to take another look at what the writing of a people that has endured for at least 5,500 years has to tell us. Above all, we should perhaps try to look with a late-20th Century perspective at what appear to be schematic diagrams of components of a peculiar technology.