Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries
Abiotic pollination occurs when pollination is mediated without the involvement of other organisms. For example, anemophily is pollination by wind. This form of pollination is very common in grasses, most conifers, and many deciduous trees. Hydrophily is pollination by water and occurs in aquatic plants which release their seeds directly into the surrounding water. About 80% of all plant pollination is biotic. Of the 20% of abiotically pollinated species, 98% is by wind and 2% by water.
Also noteworthy is this article LIGHTS of The Pharaohs and it gives real answers to the so -called Dendera lamp(Hathor Temple)and the Zodiac of Dendera
Well-pollinated blackberry blossom begins to develop fruit. Each incipient drupelet has its own stigma and good pollination requires the delivery of many grains of pollen to the flower so that all drupelets develop.
The caster oil plant grows wild in Egypt at the present day and, since the seeds have been found in graves as early as the Badarian period (4500 BC), the plant possibly is indigenous in the country. Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo and Pliny all mention the use in Egypt of castor oil for burning in lamps. Herodotus states that the seeds were either bruised and pressed, or roasted and boiled, in order to obtain the oil, which had a strong smell. Stabo states that the oil was used by the poorer people and laborers, both men and women, for anointing the body. Pliny says that in Egypt the oil was extracted without employing either fire or water, the seeds being first sprinkled with salt and them pressed. Dioscorides states that caster oil was prepared in Egypt by grinding the seeds in a mill, putting the ground mass into baskets and pressing it. The caster oil plant figured largely in the pharmacopoeia of ancient Egypt and the oil, berries and root are frequently mentioned in the medical papyri. The oil is still largely used a medicine at the present day and in Nubia it is used also for anointing the body and dressing the hair. Sections of castor oil reed were employed as kohl (cosmetic) tubes in the Eighteenth Dynasty. — (A. Lucas.
the jungle – when yall stop playing games, call me.
Good point. Keep in mind that these scenes also had to do with the cycle of reproduction in the flower world, where the stamen of the plant was exposed at sunrise, allowing the male pollen of the plants to be pollinated (taken to the female plant, the womb) by the air, birds and bees, therefore guaranteeing new life for another cycle, through the creation of seeds, the embryos of new plant life, that opens and rises to the new sun upon birth. The sky represented the womb and was the place where the seed was pollinated and brought into maturity, representing mother nature. Hence the scenes in the birth house or Mamesi house (as the AE called it) in Denderah.
The American Institute of Biological Sciences [1] reports that native insect pollination saves the United States agricultural economy nearly an estimated $3.1 billion annually through natural crop production.
Pollination of food crops has become an environmental issue, due to two trends. The trend to monoculture means that greater concentrations of pollinators are needed at bloom time than ever before, yet the area is forage poor or even deadly to bees for the rest of the season. The other trend is the decline of pollinator populations, due to pesticide misuse and overuse, new diseases and parasites of bees, clearcut logging, decline of beekeeping, suburban development, removal of hedges and other habitat from farms, and public paranoia about bees. Widespread aerial spraying for mosquitoes due to West Nile fears is causing an acceleration of the loss of pollinators.
^Fascinating stuff. Natures lessons.
Also noteworthy is this article LIGHTS of The Pharaohs and it gives real answers to the so -called Dendera lamp(Hathor Temple)and the Zodiac of Dendera
There were lamps for lighting the dark, generally shallow pottery containers filled with oil in which a twisted wick was then allowed to float in the lamp oil.
It represents a lotus plant growing in a pond. At the head of each stem is a flower, the middlemost being fully open and those at the sides half-open. Beneath the half-open flowers are leaves, which appear to be floating on the surface of the water. The flowers held the vegetable oil in which the wicks were placed, either floating or kept upright by holders. The wicks were made of braided fibers of flax. Salt might have been put in the oil to reduce smoke. The tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62) contained lamp wicks.
Also I was under the impression that olive oil and possibly grape seed oil,etc were also used by the Egyptians ? What does the analysis of the soot found inside various temples,tombs,etc indicate ?
The process of pollination requires pollinators: agents that carry or move the pollen grains from the anther to the receptive part of the carpel. The various flower traits that attract different pollinators are known as pollination syndromes. Methods of pollination, with common pollinators or plants, are:
Remember one of the terms used for the king of Egypt was he of sedge and bee, indicating that they possibly had some level of understanding of the birds and bees in the sexual reproduction of plants. However, most varieties of sedge plants reproduce using wind pollination. The ancient Egyptians had a very deep insight into the nature of life.
This pollination represents the transfer of the male pollen to the female plant which then produce seeds, which contain the embryo of a new plant.
I have splendidly equipped your temple with vessels of silver; numerous cattle, ducks, and geese; I have made secure their maintenance by (an endowment of) lands, as well as (that of) their custodian forever and ever. I built their shelters in your city. I gave very fine wine of the Southern Oasis, spelt and honey into your storehouses, which I built anew in the great name of his majesty. I gave illuminating oil for lighting the lamps of your temple.
Bees are also brought to commercial plantings of cucumbers, squash, melons, strawberries, and many other crops. Honey bees are not the only managed pollinators: other species of bees are also raised as pollinators. The alfalfa leafcutter bee is an important pollinator for alfalfa seed in western United States and Canada. Bumblebees are increasingly raised and used extensively for greenhouse tomatoes and other crops.
Biotic pollination occurs when pollination is mediated by an organism, termed a pollinator. Entomophily, pollination by insects, often occurs on plants that have developed blue petals and a strong scent to attract insects such as, bees, wasps and occasionally ants (Hymenoptera), beetles (Coleoptera), moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera), and flies (Diptera). In Zoophily, pollination is done by vertebrates such as birds and bats, particularly, hummingbirds, sunbirds, spiderhunters, honeyeaters, and fruit Bats. Plants adapted to this strategy tend to develop red petals to attract birds and rarely develop a scent because few birds have a sense of smell.
The US solution to the pollinator shortage, so far, has been for commercial beekeepers to become pollination contractors and to migrate. Just as the combine harvesters follow the wheat harvest from Texas to Manitoba, beekeepers follow the bloom from south to north, to provide pollination for many different crops.
Castor oil was used by the ancient Egyptians. Castor seeds have been found in Egyptian tombs dating back to 4000 BC. Herodotus and other Greek travelers have noted the use of castor seed oil for lighting and body anointments. By Greek times there was a great annual festival in honor of Isis-Nit. Part of the festival, recorded by Herodotus, said that the people lit their houses with lamps and torches that were fueled by oil mixed with salt. The lamps and torches were kept burning until the morning, while the people themselves feasted.
Pollination management is a branch of agriculture that seeks to protect and enhance present pollinators and often involves the culture and addition of pollinators in monoculture situations, such as commercial fruit orchards. The largest managed pollination event in the world is in Californian almond orchards, where nearly half (about one million hives) of the US honey bees are trucked to the almond orchards each spring. New Yorks apple crop requires about 30,000 hives; Maines blueberry crop uses about 50,000 hives each year.
The ecological and financial importance of natural pollination by insects to agricultural crops, improving their quality and quantity, becomes more and more appreciated and has given rise to new financial opportunities. The vicinity of a forest or wild grasslands with native pollinators near agricultural crops, such as apples, almonds or coffee can improve their yield by about 20%. The benefits of native pollinators may result in forest owners demanding payment for their contribution in the improved crop results – a simple example of the economic value of ecological services.
Well-pollinated blackberry blossom begins to develop fruit. Each incipient drupelet has its own stigma and good pollination requires the delivery of many grains of pollen to the flower so that all drupelets develop.
Keep in mind that bee pollination is a major aspect of modern agriculture. Therefore, considering how important agriculture was in ancient Egypt, I would believe that the Egyptians understood this long before it was discovered in the west. That is why these various national deities and forms of symbolism had various levels of meaning: biological, anthropological, chemical and metaphysical.
Also I was under the impression that olive oil and possibly grape seed oil,etc were also used by the Egyptians ? What does the analysis of the soot found inside various temples,tombs,etc indicate ?