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Ancient Ramp Find Deepens Mystery
‘The discovery of a 4,500-year-old ramp offers clues about Egyptians' technological knowledge. Researchers in Egypt discovered a 4,500-year-old ramp system used to haul alabaster stones out of a quarry, and reports have suggested that it could provide clues as to how Egyptians built the pyramids. Yet while the ramp system…
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The pyramids at Giza
‘All three of Giza's famed pyramids and their elaborate burial complexes were built during a frenetic period of construction, from roughly 2550 to 2490 B.C. The pyramids were built by Pharaohs Khufu (tallest), Khafre (background), and Menkaure (front). Pyramids at Giza - How the Pyramids at Giza were built is one of…
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Things You May Not Know About Ancient Egypt
“Are you tired yet?” asks Rip. “We’re almost done and you must be thirsty and hungry. Let me just give you some facts about Ancient Egypt and then we’ll see if we can find something for you.” ‘Cleopatra was not Egyptian - Along with King Tut, perhaps no figure is more famously associated with ancient Egypt than Cleopatra…
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Things about Ancient Egypt continued …..
Egyptian women had a wide range of rights and freedoms - While they may have been publicly and socially viewed as inferior to men, Egyptian women enjoyed a great deal of legal and financial independence. They could buy and sell property, serve on juries, make wills and even enter into legal contracts. Egyptian women did…
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More things about Ancient Egypt
King Tut may have been killed by a hippopotamus - Surprisingly little is known about the life of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamen, but some historians believe they know how he died. Scans of the young king’s body show that he was embalmed without his heart or his chest wall. This drastic departure from traditional Egyptian…
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What is Egyptology?
Rip realizes that he needs to tell Tiffi about Egyptology which is the study of Ancient Egypt. ‘Egyptology, the study of pharaonic Egypt, spanning the period c. 4500 bce to ce 641. Egyptology began when the scholars accompanying Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Egypt (1798–1801) published Description de l’Égypte (1809–28),…
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Egypt today
“Tiffi, let’s start walking back towards the time travelling door and I will talk about Egypt today,” says Rip. ‘Egypt has become a contrast of historical layers that varied from the Ancient Egyptian civilization to the Roman Empire with all their greatness, and from the Islamic dynasties to the modern history of Egypt is…
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Tiffi goes back to school to learn about the prehistoric ages
Tiffi wakes up early one morning eager to start the day. She looks at her phone, no text messages. She has no plans for today so she decides to head on over to the community to see what’s going on. Along the way she passes by the school and her memories go back to the time when she meet Rip Van Winkle. Tiffi met him in…
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Tiffi goes to visit Rip
Tiffi continues heading toward the community but plans on stopping at the school on the way back home to say hello to him. She stops to read the Badge of the Month message. She spends about a half hour reading some of the responses. Wow! Some great ideas to new stories. She will have to tell Elsa to check it out! Not much…
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The Prehistoric Ages: How Humans Lived Before Written Records
Time passes quickly and today is the first day of Rip’s new class. “Good morning Rip,” Tiffi says. “I can’t wait to learn about the Prehistoric era.” Rip tells her to go inside and he will join her shortly. A few minutes later the school bell rings so Rip walks into the classroom. As the students settle in he notices that…
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The Ice Age
“Let’s begin with the Ice Age,” Rip says. ‘An ice age is a period of colder global temperatures and recurring glacial expansion capable of lasting hundreds of millions of years. Thanks to the efforts of geologist Louis Agassiz and mathematician Milutin Milankovitch, scientists have determined that variations in the Earth’s…
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Ice Age Theory Origins
‘The origins of ice age theory began hundreds of years ago, when Europeans noted that glaciers in the Alps had shrunk, but its popularization is credited to 19th century Swiss geologist Louis Agassiz. Contradicting the belief that a wide-ranging flood killed off such megafauna as the wooly mammoth, Agassiz pointed to rock…
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The Stone Age c2500000-3200 BC
Time moves quickly and it’s now time for Tiffi to go back to class. Rip has a lot to discuss today so he begins as soon as he takes the roll call. ‘Divided into three periods: Paleolithic (or Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (or Middle Stone Age), and Neolithic (or New Stone Age), this era is marked by the use of tools by our…
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The Bronze Age c3200-1200 BC
‘During the Bronze Age (about 3,000 B.C. to 1,300 B.C.), metalworking advances were made, as bronze, a copper and tin alloy, was discovered. Now used for weapons and tools, the harder metal replaced its stone predecessors, and helped spark innovations including the ox-drawn plow and the wheel. This time period also brought…
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The Iron Age c1200 BC-100 AD
‘The discovery of ways to heat and forge iron kicked off the Iron Age (roughly 1,300 B.C. to 900 B.C.). At the time, the metal was seen as more precious than gold, and wrought iron (which would be replaced by steel with the advent of smelting iron) was easier to manufacture than bronze. Along with mass production of steel…
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The beginning of recording human civilization
‘At the start of prehistoric times, our ancestors most likely lived in caves, to shield from danger and bad weather. They started making huts that were similar to teepees from sticks and animal skins. Because they were hunter gatherers, they needed to move around a lot to find new food, so it was important that their homes…
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The Glass Age 1300-present
‘The end of the Iron Age is generally considered to coincide with the Roman Conquests, and history books tell us that it was succeeded by Antiquity and then the Middle Ages. It wasn’t until the 1300s that another material, glass, could lay claim to a material age. Glass in its natural form has been with us since lightning…
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The Steel Age 1800s-present
‘The development of steel can be traced back 4000 years to the beginning of the Iron Age. Proving to be harder and stronger than bronze, which had previously been the most widely used metal, iron began to displace bronze in weaponry and tools. For the following few thousand years, however, the quality of iron produced…
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The Steel Age 1800s-present
‘With more than 1.6 billion tonnes of steel produced globally each year, steel is one of the most abundant man-made materials on the planet today. An alloy, it is made up almost exclusively of iron (as much as 99 per cent), while its secondary component carbon contributes up to 2 per cent by weight. Carbon is added to…
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The Aluminium Age 1800s-present
'The story of aluminum’s history of use in the U.S. now stretches over 100 years. The start was a modest one, however. Because of the complexities of refining aluminum from ore, aluminum was considered more rare and precious than gold or silver through most of the 19th century. A pure form of the metal was first…