Chemistry in the Time of the Pharaohs

Abstract

The Egyptians were known in the ancient world as experts in many applied chemistry fields such as metallurgy, wine and beer making, glass making, paper manufacture, paint pigments, dyes, cosmetics, perfumes, and pharmaceuticals. They made significant developments in the extraction of metals from their ores, especially copper and gold. The Egyptians developed a writing surface from the papyrus plant and used naturally occurring inorganic salts as paint pigments; they also made the first synthetic pigment, Egyptian blue, developed as early as 3000 B.C.E. The Leyden and Stockholm papyri give information on numerous chemical processes, dating to about 300 C.E., but copied from earlier sources. This article describes an overview of the various chemical activities that took place in ancient Egypt from which it can be deduced that the ancient Egyptians were among the first practicing chemists. In fact the word “chemistry” can be traced to the name the ancients used when referring to ancient Egypt.

Bees and Beekeeping in Ancient Egypt

“…63 On top of the scene are the words xtm bjt or 'sealing honey,' 64 which confirms the sealing process of the honey containers. 65 It should be noted that no private tomb of this era has given us similar representations. 66 Despite the fact that the workers shown in the previous Nyuserra relief appeared with no names or titles, yet titles like xtm bjt 'the Sealer of the Honey' 67 was known in ancient Egypt as early as the first dynasty.…”

Origin of the Anomalous Color of Egyptian and Han Blue Historical Pigments: Going beyond the Complex Approximation in Ligand Field Theory

“…It is well-known that in drawings found in prehistoric caves like Lascaux, Niaux or Altamira blue color is not present. In fact, while the rest of the palette could be obtained through iron and manganese oxides and coal, prehistoric men were not able to get stable minerals displaying a deep blue color. , This fact underlines the historical importance of the so-called Egyptian Blue pigment (Figure ) already prepared around 3600 BC in the early Egyptian culture and widely employed not only in Egypt but also in Greece and the Roman Empire. − The fingerprint of this pigment is well found in Amarna, Luxor, or Pompeii with the crown of the famous bust of Queen Nefertiti being the best known example where pure Egyptian Blue was used.…”

“…The present work is addressed to demonstrate the key role played by the internal electric field, usually ignored in the realm of insulating TM compounds, pointing out that their properties cannot, in general, be properly understood through the idea of isolated complex. To achieve this goal, particular attention is paid to analyze the origin of the bright blue color of the first man-made pigment, known as Egyptian Blue. − This pigment is based on the CaCuSi 4 O 10 crystal, and its optical properties are rather different from those of CaCuO 2 , BaCuSi 2 O 6 or Li 2 CuO 2 compounds, all of them involving the same square-planar CuO 4 6– chromophore . Aside from historical reasons, the Egyptian Blue pigment has been chosen as a model system for showing the shortcomings of considering only the isolated complex because the shifts induced by the internal field E R ( r ) on the d–d transitions of the square–planar CuO 4 6– chromophore, up to ∼0.9 eV, are much higher than those for other compounds involving octahedral complexes. , …”

Characterization of Egyptian bronze archaeological artifacts

“…From the 18th Dynasty onwards, bronze was well known and during later periods, it was employed extensively for casting all kinds of statues. The late period is considered the Golden Era of bronze statues of the Egyptian gods and goddesses that were discovered at Thebes, Saqqara, and other parts of Egypt . The ancient Egyptians adopted numerous methods for varying the composition of bronze, by a judicious mixture of alloys.…”