EGYPTOLOGY IN THE SERVICE OF LEARNING CHEMISTRY IN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

Ancient cultures or civilizatons carried out diferent technological improvements without the knowledge of the scientfc processes involved. At the Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeria Industrial de Barcelona (ETSEIB), some courses deal with the technological achievements in the antquity and, in partcular, one course deals with the achievements of the Ancient Egyptans, not only to learn what the Ancient Egyptans knew and made but also to look for scientfc solutons to modern problems related with the antquity. In this sense, this work considers the teaching of the chemical basis involved in one technological development of the ancient Egyptans which is taught in one Electve Course enttled: “Questons of technology and civilizaton in the Ancient Egypt”. The students use their knowledge on Basic Chemistry as well as on Inorganic and Analytcal Chemistry in order to understand the chemistry involved in the technological development carried out at the Bronze Age (3000-1200 BC) and propose solutons to the variaton in the color of the hieroglyphs painted in papyri. The experience acquired in the lessons taught in the Electve Course together with the feed-back from the students is used to implement a new optonal course in the Bachelor’s Degrees in Industrial Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Materials Engineering named “Technological and Scientfc Developments in Antquity: Ancient Egypt and Middle East and North Africa”.