In the previous section we looked at the economic system of Mesopotamia. Today we will look at another great civilization. Before you: ancient Egypt. Egypt enters the arena of history for good in about 3000 BC, when it became a centralized local power. While this was certainly not a state you'd want to live in (proponents of social equality would probably be horrified to be transported back to that time), the unification under one scepter of the lands in the Nile delta and valley allowed for an improved irrigation system and thus a strong agricultural development. It can be said that during this historical period, centralization served the development of technology and economy. Tillage based on artificial irrigation was crucial to Egypt's market. The overall boom was accompanied by the development of construction or rock processing technologies, which is quite relevant in the context of blockchain. Why? Well, carving into something so hard was the next step in storing information. Even today, hieroglyphs preserved in temples or pyramids can help us read messages that the Egyptians wanted to pass on to their descendants. We can still admire, for example, the famous Narmer's palette. When archaeologists at the end of the 19th century discovered it during excavations in Nehen they thought that it was an ordinary palette for rubbing dyes. However, no one probably used it for such mundane tasks. For the object represented the king-unifier of Egypt. How do we know his name? It was written on the vessel. In its upper part there are two syllables: sum (nar) and chisel (mer). And so Narmer is one of the first people in the world to have his name recorded on some - literally! - a permanent medium. Egypt: the history of writing Egyptians will always be associated with hieroglyphics. The earliest monuments of their writing are bone tablets from a tomb in Abdesh, which was the burial place of a ruler, who lived about 150 years before Narmer. This gentleman was not introduced to posterity.... It is likely that the idea of writing as an invention came to Egypt with influences from Mesopotamia. Only that Egyptians decided to create their own system of data recording. By the way, this is an interesting phenomenon that runs throughout our history. First, someone invents a new invention (a motor vehicle, a computer network, a telephone or whatever comes to mind) and then another person or group starts to create something else on the basis of the original idea. Through trial and error a new quality is created. Hieroglyphs are - as it is emphasized by the experts of the subject - wonderfully adapted to the speech notation of ancient Egyptians. We don't know who was behind this system. We can only conclude that it was the result of works commissioned by the rulers. The latter quickly discovered the great potential of the invention - especially in the context of economic management. Imagine this. Suddenly, in a world of constant struggle for new goods and property (we are talking about a period when Egypt was not yet a single entity, but a few states), you can already record specific data and information! Naturally, goods received and issued from the treasury quickly began to be stamped with the ruler's symbol. To the gifts that were destined for his tombs, tags were attached that included the name of the owner, but also the content, quantity, quality and origin. Ancient Excel The Egyptians were great accountants. Today, more than a few of them would be the guy in your workplace who loves creating tables and charts in Excel. Therefore, writing appealed to them. So much so that being a "scribe" - or data recorder, in other words - was an honor and a lever in the social hierarchy. Ancient Egyptian mothers repeated a saying to their children: "become a writer, it saves you from drudgery, it protects you from every job" (translating from ancient Egyptian into Polish: o "learn, learn, for learning is the key to power"). Coming back to Excel - yes, the Egyptians already created tables, which can be considered a kind of spreadsheets. There is a table of this type in the British Museum, from which we can learn about daily income. The papyrus comes from the archive of the pyramid of King Neferirkare. The scribe recorded in the sheet how much was delivered to the ruler's residence by individual subjects and temple workers. The number of jugs of sechpet or beer, sacks of flour and bread and their places of origin were noted. It was even noted that Ni-tawi-Kakai brought 2 legs of ox instead of beer and sechpet (he must have been considered quite reasonable and knew the implications of alcohol). Yes, Egyptians were great accountants. Another sequence of hieroglyphs (no longer in the form of a table) was a record of a list of estates, from which the local temple at the pyramid of king Snofr of the 4th dynasty derived income. Each estate was represented here by a separate female figure, who carried gifts to the rulers. Among the discoveries of archaeologists there is also a table with an inventory from the archive of the already mentioned king Neferirkare. The number of bowls, vases, tools, furniture and knives were recorded. Writing had a great impact on trade. Just as oz
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