PREHISTORIC ERA
Many ancient cultures were fascinated with the movement of the heavenly bodies because people thought that they exerted influence on earthly events. The ancients carefully observed astral rhythms and computed how the seasons fit this schedule. Sumer, one of the earliest Mesopotamian cities, left behind the first calendar (354 days) by 2700 b.c.e.
China had developed a calendar system very similar to the modern one by 1400 b.c.e. In Central America the Maya developed an amazingly accurate calendar that could predict eclipses and planetary conjunctions that mirrored the modern way of calculating years, based on a commonly
accepted event like the birth of Christ. Dionysius Exiguus (a Christian) invented the current dating system in the sixth century c.e.
Metal Forging. Copper smelting began in Catal Huyuk (perhaps the earliest city excavated, found in modern-day Turkey) before the Bronze Age. However, the people in northern Thailand were the first to make bronze (an alloy of tin and copper) around 4000 b.c.e. The first bronze foundry in China developed around 2200 b.c.e. Craftspeople among the Hittites of western Asia perfected iron making for their weapons by 1200 b.c.e.; iron work was also known in central Africa. The Iron Age reached China by 500 b.c.e. Being cheaper to produce than bronze, iron soon found widespread use in war and farming. The Chinese began casting iron a thousand years before Europeans did. At about the same time they began to cast iron the Chinese also began to make steel. Researchers have recently uncovered a Chinese belt buckle made of aluminum, showing that they began to refine this metal some 1,500 years before Europeans. In the Andes area gold smelting, used largely for jewelry, developed around 200 b.c.e. After 600 c.e. Western Hemisphere cultures also began to smelt silver and copper but never processed iron or bronze. Rubber was first found among the Chavín culture of the Andes around 1100 b.c.e.
Scientific Tools and Speculation. Peoples of the Near East were the first to develop writing. They used papyrus, animal skins, and clay tablets. The earliest surviving writing in China was found incised on animal bones and turtle shells and cast into bronze vessels. The Chinese invented paper around the beginning of the Common Era, a much cheaper medium than silk and less cumbersome than clay tablets or metal.
Western civilizations made strong contributions to the speculative disciplines of mathematics and sciences. The abacus was invented in the Near East around 3000 b.c.e., an indication of fascination for numbers, mathematics, and the sciences. Famous scientists include Pythagoras (500 b.c.e.), who, in addition to figuring out useful things related to triangles, developed both scientific and eccentric theories about the physical universe. Euclid (300 b.c.e.) is still studied today for his insights in geom- etry, and his theory profited another Greek mathematician, Aristarchus, who computed the distance between the Sun and the Moon c. 280 b.c.e. Archimedes in turn figured out pi and invented such simple machines as the lever and the pulley. Greek astronomers also made observations and deductions that were unparalleled until Galileo during the European Renaissance.
Chinese mathematicians were first to use exponential formulae and scientific notation (200 b.c.e.) and utilized several other innovations: the magnetic compass (1 c.e.), “negative numbers” (100 c.e.), and north-south, east-west parallels in maps (265 c.e.).
Industry and Medicine. Two civilizations used the wheel to advantage in their development. They were the Sumer (c. 3000 b.c.e.) and the Shang dynasty in China (c. 1700 b.c.e.). One practical application of the wheel is the wheelbarrow, invented by the Chinese in the first century c.e. Other “wheels” of great benefit but unrelated to transportation were the potter’s wheel, found in Mesopotamia as early as 3500 b.c.e., and the water wheel, a technology of hydrology invented around 500 b.c.e. The wheel was not used in transportation in the Western Hemisphere.
The Egyptians were the earliest glassmakers (c. 1500 b.c.e.), but by 100 b.c.e. Syria became a major exporter of high-quality glasswares. In manufacturing cloth the Chinese were the first to domesticate the silkworm and to cultivate mulberry trees during the Neolithic Period. Silk-weaving technology then spread elsewhere and by 550 c.e. had reached the Byzantine Empire. Cotton was woven and traded in the Indus River valley around 2500 b.c.e. Although cotton growing and spinning are adopted by other cultures, Indian textiles remain famous throughout the period.
The Chinese have a long and venerable history of homeopathy and natural remedies in health care. Acupuncture started in China (2500 b.c.e.). The Mesoamericans are known to have acquired a vast knowledge of the medicinal use of plants. Chroniclers in the New World listed some 1,200 indigenous medicinal plants that sprang from native treatments and traditions. The Greek world is known for its well-published and imitated physicians, as well as remedies for ailments. The famous Greek physician Hippocrates wrote the Corpus Hippocraticum (400 b.c.e.), a textbook for medical doctors. Other Greek physicians of note included Erasistratus of Chios who explained heart valves (250 c.e.) and Galen (third century c.e.), whose medical writings provided advice for
centuries to come.
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