Science in Ancient Egypt (Science of the Past)
Grade 5-8 The accomplishments of ancient Egyptians in architecture, medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and agriculture are presented in a clear and concise manner. A concluding chapter summarizes the more visible parts of modern everyday life which owe their beginnings to Egypt. For example, the Egyptians were the first to design locks with a notched key matching pegs within the lock and were responsible for our sun-based calendar. Woods is careful to point out where our knowledge of Egyptian technology is incomplete, such as techniques used for shaping stones, and he describes several probable alternative methods. The paucity of illustrations is a weakness. Those that have been included are often incomplete or fail to deal with the processes being described. Still, this is a good general introduction, which should be followed up by books that focus on specific aspects of Egyptian civilization, such as Mildred Pace's Wrapped for Eternity (McGraw, 1974; o.p.) and David Macaulay's Pyramid (Houghton, 1975). David N. Pauli, Northern Waters Library Service, Ashland, Wis.Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.