re: What did the Egyptians contribute to society?

They contributed civilization. The building of the pyramids of Giza was further removed from Augustus Caesar than Augustus Caesar is from us. They aren't the oldest civilization in the world, but they are amongst that crowd. They are the building blocks of all this. Of course their contributions are going to be rudimentary. These are things like the foundations of writing, agriculture, and architecture. They are so old that many of their contributions have simply been lost to time.