The etymology is uncertain, but a strong candidate has long been some word related to the Biblical פוך ( pūk ), " paint " ( if not that word itself ), a cosmetic eye-shadow used by the ancient Egyptians and other inhabitants of the eastern Mediterranean.

Egyptians also believed that being mummified and put in a sarcophagus ( an ancient Egyptian " coffin " carved with complex symbols and designs, as well as pictures and hieroglyphs ) was the only way to have an afterlife.

Amethyst was used as a gemstone by the ancient Egyptians and was largely employed in antiquity for intaglio engraved gems.

Even though the stone had been around centuries and was known to both the Sumerians and the Egyptians, both who used the gem for decoration and for playing important parts in their religious ceremonies, any agate of this color from Sicily, once an ancient Greek colony, is called Greek agate.

Many ancient cultures, including the ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks, used specially selected mold and plant materials and extracts to treat infections.

The first mention of aeronautics in history was in the writings of ancient Egyptians who described the flight of birds.

Historical evidence also points to the use of non-returning boomerangs by the ancient Egyptians, Native Americans of California and Arizona, and inhabitants of southern India for killing birds and rabbits.

Manek states that Sungazing is the key to his health, citing the Jainist Tirthankara Mahavira, ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Native Americans as his inspiration.

According to some ancient Greek collections, canons 29 and 30 are attributed to the council: canon 29, which states that an unworthy bishop cannot be demoted but can be removed, is an extract from the minutes of the 19th session ; canon 30, which grants the Egyptians time to consider their rejection of Leo's Tome, is an extract from the minutes of the fourth session.

Together with northern Somalia, Djibouti, and the Red Sea coast of Sudan, Eritrea is considered the most likely location of the land known to the ancient Egyptians as Punt ( or " Ta Netjeru ," meaning god's land ), whose first mention dates to the 25th century BC.

In the third century AD, Flavius Philostratus wrote this: " For there is an ancient law in regard to the Red Sea, which the king Erythras laid down, when he held sway over that sea, to the effect that the Egyptians should not enter it with a vessel of war, and indeed should employ only a single merchant ship.

The ancient Egyptians had a thoroughly developed system for the acquisition of intelligence, and the Hebrews used spies as well, as in the story of Rahab.

The most famous practitioners were ancient Egyptians — many nobles and highly ranked bureaucrats had their corpses embalmed and stored in luxurious sarcophagi inside their funeral mausoleums.

In the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts it is revealed the ancient Egyptians believed Nun ( the Ocean ) was a circular body surrounding nbwt ( a term meaning " dry lands " or " Islands ") and therefore believed in a similar Ancient Near Eastern circular earth cosmography surrounded by water.

The ancient Egyptians knew that they could approximate the area of a circle as follows:

In addition, wealthy ancient Egyptians grew vineyards, as wine was a sign of the higher social classes.

Verner wrote, " We can conclude that although the ancient Egyptians could not precisely define the value of π, in practice they used it ".

Traditionally, ancient Egyptians cut stone blocks by hammering wooden wedges into the stone which were then soaked with water.

The ancient Egyptians also employed magical incantations, which have been found inscribed on various amulets and other items.

Revolving around an Englishman living in 1930s London named Robert Denvers who has recollections of a previous life as a Bronze Age Cypriot – an allusion to Gardner himself – the primary plot of A Goddess Arrives is set in ancient Cyprus and featured a queen, Dayonis, who practices sorcery in an attempt to help her people defend themselves from invading Egyptians.

The ancient Egyptians had a system of medicine that was very advanced for its time and influenced later medical traditions.

Principally the Ethiopians which dwell in the Orient, and the Egyptians which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies accustomed to worship me, do call me Queen Isis .[...

Political leaders are known to have claimed actual divinity in certain early societies — the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs being the premier case — taking a role as objects of worship and being credited with superhuman status and powers.

The term ethnologia ( ethnology ) is credited to Adam Franz Kollár ( 1718-1783 ) who used and defined it in his Historiae ivrisqve pvblici Regni Vngariae amoenitates published in Vienna in 1783. as: “ the science of nations and peoples, or, that study of learned men in which they inquire into the origins, languages, customs, and institutions of various nations, and finally into the fatherland and ancient seats, in order to be able better to judge the nations and peoples in their own times .”

Some ancient authorities in the doxographic tradition credited the Greek philosophers Pythagoras, in the 6th century BC, and Parmenides, in the 5th, with recognizing that the Earth is spherical.

Hippocrates is commonly portrayed as the paragon of the ancient physician, credited with coining the Hippocratic Oath, still relevant and in use today.

Imhotep in the 3rd dynasty is sometimes credited with being the founder of ancient Egyptian medicine and with being the original author of the Edwin Smith Papyrus, detailing cures, ailments and anatomical observations.

The earliest known physician is also credited to ancient Egypt: Hesy-Ra, “ Chief of Dentists and Physicians ” for King Djoser in the 27th century BC.

Sixtus I is credited as having instituted several Roman Catholic liturgical and administrative traditions, but historians believe that these were attributed to him by later writers who were interested in bolstering the papacy's claims to ancient supremacy.

Arion () was a kitharode in ancient Greece, a Dionysiac poet credited with inventing the dithyramb: " As a literary composition for chorus dithyramb was the creation of Arion of Corinth ," The islanders of Lesbos claimed him as their native son, but Arion found a patron in Periander, tyrant of Corinth.

The discovery of the Rosetta Stone, a tablet written in ancient Greek, Egyptian Demotic script, and Egyptian hieroglyphs, has partially been credited for the recent stir in the study of Ancient Egypt.

The origin of the designation Acadia is credited to the explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, who on his 16th century map applied the ancient Greek name " Arcadia " to the entire Atlantic coast north of Virginia.

The invention of central heating is often credited to the ancient Romans, who installed systems of air ducts called hypocausts in the walls and floors of public baths and private villas.

In addition to his athletic victories, Milo is credited by the ancient commentator Diodorus Siculus with leading his fellow citizens to military triumph over neighboring Sybaris in 510 BC.

Thoth became credited by the ancient Egyptians as the inventor of writing, and was also considered to have been the scribe of the underworld, and the Moon became occasionally considered a separate entity, now that Thoth had less association with it, and more with wisdom.

Cadmus was credited by the ancient Greeks ( Herodotus is an example ) with introducing the original Alphabet or Phoenician alphabet -- phoinikeia grammata, " Phoenician letters " -- to the Greeks, who adapted it to form their Greek alphabet.

Gracchus was thus credited with ( or accused of ) disturbing the mos maiorum (" custom of the fathers / ancestors ") in ancient Rome.

In other myths, which appeared extremely late in ancient Egyptian history, Sobek was credited for catching the Four sons of Horus in a net as they emerged from the waters of the Nile in a lotus blossom.

The origin of the designation Acadia is credited to the explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, who on his 16th century map applied the ancient Greek name " Arcadia " to the entire Atlantic coast north of Virginia ( note the inclusion of the ' r ' of the original Greek name ).

Thomas the Apostle is credited by tradition for founding the Indian Church in 52 AD This Nasrani faith had many similarities to ancient Judaism, see also Jewish Christianity, and, owing to the heritage of the Jewish Christian Nasrani people, developed contacts with the Non-Chalcedonian religious authorities of Edessa, Mesopotamia.

One of the first references to lodestone's magnetic properties is by 6th century BCE Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, who is credited by the ancient Greeks with discovering lodestone's attraction to iron and other lodestones.

Their translation from Jerusalem to the complex of palaces that became the ancient seat of popes in the 4th century is credited to Saint Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine I.

* Chanakya ( c. 370 – 283 BCE ), the contemporary Indian teacher, philosopher and royal advisor, who managed the first Maurya emperor Chandragupta rise to power, act as a similar reformer in ancient India and he is widely credited for having played an important role in the establishment of the Maurya Empire.

Although examples of such prophecies can be found in literature as far back as ancient Greece and ancient India, it is 20th-century sociologist Robert K. Merton who is credited with coining the expression " self-fulfilling prophecy " and formalizing its structure and consequences.

While much of this is a commercialized aspect of Shaolin, it is also widely credited as keeping the 1500-year-old temple in the consciousness of the world, and from vanishing into obscurity like many other ancient traditions.