A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | ||
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1 | ID | Year | Title | Description | Inventor | Location | Dependencies | Field | URL | ||||||||||||||||||
2 | biped | 4000000 BCE | Bipedal species | Free hands allowed hominids to manipulate objects, bring them closer to our senses and thus increase brain capacity, priming the feedback loop. | General | ||||||||||||||||||||||
3 | stone-tool | 2000000 BCE | Stone tools | Crows are known for tool use, and chimps can fashion tools out of sticks. Humans learned to sharpen stones into edges and points. | biped | General | |||||||||||||||||||||
4 | fire | 500000 BCE | Fire tamed | Initially, fire had to be found (eg. lightning strikes). Eventually, it became possible to start via friction caused by spinning sticks. | biped | General | |||||||||||||||||||||
5 | ceremonial-burial | 200000 BCE | Ceremonial burial | Neanderthals were the first hominids to bury their dead rather than leaving their bodies to scavengers and rot. Food and floweres were often buried with the corpse. | biped | Culture | |||||||||||||||||||||
6 | art | 20000 BCE | Art | Some of the earliest paintings were found in caves, seem to be drawn for ceremonial, religious purposes. | ceremonial-burial | Culture | |||||||||||||||||||||
7 | bow | 20000 BCE | Bows and arrows | First object to slowly store energy and release it all at once. Much safer to hunt from a distance. | stone-tool | War | |||||||||||||||||||||
8 | oil-lamp | 20000 BCE | Oil lamps | Torches make fire portable, but a primitive lamp is way more convenient. | fire | General | |||||||||||||||||||||
9 | animal-dom | 12000 BCE | Animals domesticated | Dogs were first to be domesticated, followed by goats. This enabled hunter gatherers to become shepherds with a much more secure food supply. | biped | General | |||||||||||||||||||||
10 | agriculture | 8000 BCE | Plants domesticated | Deliberate seed planting and harvesting allowed the same land area support a larger population, but bound farmers to their land. Cities emerged for protection. | animal-dom | General | |||||||||||||||||||||
11 | pottery | 7000 BCE | Pottery | Gourds were hard to find, and baskets could only hold large, dry objects. Pottery began as a technique for waterproofing baskets, and enabled carrying liquids and powders. | biped | Culture | |||||||||||||||||||||
12 | fish-nets | 6000 BCE | Linen | Linen made out of interwoven flax fibers enabled strong cords. Interleaving these cords enabled fishing nets and clothing. | stone-tool | General | |||||||||||||||||||||
13 | raft | 6000 BCE | Rafts | Lashing logs together to form a floating wooden platform enabled people to cross longer stretches of water. | stone-tool | General | |||||||||||||||||||||
14 | sickle | 6000 BCE | Sickles | Stone knives to help cut down stalks, and hand mills in the style of mortar and pestle. | stone-tool, agriculture | General | |||||||||||||||||||||
15 | irrigation | 5000 BCE | Irrigation | Previously farmers had to rely on rainfall, suffered in droughts and built their farms near rivers, which could also flood. Irrigation ditches allowed farms to plant further from rivers and more deal with flooding. | agriculture | General | |||||||||||||||||||||
16 | scale | 5000 BCE | Weight scales | For comparing weights or comparing to a reference weight. | Egypt | stone-tool | Math | ||||||||||||||||||||
17 | copper | 4000 BCE | Copper | First obtained from metallic nuggets, metals (meaning "to search for" in Greek) were smelted using fire, and then molded into desired forms. Still fragile though. | fire, stone-tool | General | |||||||||||||||||||||
18 | simple-sundial | 4000 BCE | Simple sundials | A stake placed vertically into the ground gave a general sense of time of day. Likely also split the day into 12 hours. | Egypt | stone-tool | General | ||||||||||||||||||||
19 | bronze | 3600 BCE | Bronze | Copper is rarely pure in nature, some alloys are poisonous (eg. copper + arsenic), but copper + tin is hard enough to compete with rock. | copper | General | |||||||||||||||||||||
20 | cart | 3500 BCE | Wheeled carts | Even with animals in tow, dragging heavy objects on sleds was tough. Rollers could be added to the sledge, but this was still inefficient. Wheels with rollers inside the cart were a game changer. | copper | General | |||||||||||||||||||||
21 | river-boat | 3500 BCE | River boats | Carrying heavy loads on water is far easier than on land: no rocks, no hills, no ridges. Boats were first used on the Nile, which unlike the Tigris is flat and has predictable winds from the north. | Egypt | raft | General | ||||||||||||||||||||
22 | writing | 3500 BCE | Writing | Earliest use of writing was for ledgers, which led to symbols for fruit, frain, man, and ultimately hieroglyphics. | Sumer | stone-tool | General | ||||||||||||||||||||
23 | plow | 3500 BCE | Plows | Scattering seeds on the ground led to random planting patterns. Digging furrows in the soil and planting seeds inside sped up the rate of growth. | Sumer | agriculture | General | ||||||||||||||||||||
24 | nation | 3100 BCE | Nations | Irrigation meant more coordination since water was a shared resource. As settlements grew in complexity and density, city-states blended together. This first happened in the Nile delta in Egypt. | Egypt | agriculture | Culture | ||||||||||||||||||||
25 | candle | 3000 BCE | Candles | Oil could be spilled and spread dangerous fire, By surrounding a flame with animal fat, the solid can illuminate and serve as a container. | Egypt | animal-dom, oil-lamp | Culture | ||||||||||||||||||||
26 | calendar | 2800 BCE | Calendar | Some phenomena, like seasons, vary over hundreds of days. The moon cycle is a convenient length (~30 days), and about 12 of them make for a seasonal cycle. | Egypt | simple-sundial, writing | Culture | ||||||||||||||||||||
27 | stone-monument | 2650 BCE | Stone monuments | Surplus of food meant more time to dedicate to showcase national greatness or build elaborate tombs for leaders. | Egypt | nation, ceremonial-burial | Design | ||||||||||||||||||||
28 | literature | 2500 BCE | Literature | Oral storytelling is as old as speech, but writing allowed to codify epics. Gilgamesh is the first written tale. | Sumer | writing | Culture | ||||||||||||||||||||
29 | glass | 2500 BCE | Glass | Made out of sand and technically a liquid, glass can be made transparent and more beautiful than pottery. Originally used as ornaments, not vessels. | Egypt | fire | General | ||||||||||||||||||||
30 | empire | 2340 BCE | Empires | Sumerian city states fought one another, eventually Sargon of Akkad conquered Sumer and ruled over people of different languages and cultures, with Akkadians superior. | Sargon | Akkad | nation | Culture | |||||||||||||||||||
31 | horse | 2000 BCE | Horses | Oxen are strong but dumb and slow, while donkeys are smart but weak. Tamed horses were a good compromise, initially used for driving chariots, eventually much more. | animal-dom | General | |||||||||||||||||||||
32 | numbers | 1800 BCE | Number system | Base 60 was first used by Sumer because it is divisible by so many numbers. This is why there are 6*60 degrees in a circle, which is conveniently close to 365. Seven known planets led to the week. | Egypt | writing | Math | ||||||||||||||||||||
33 | fermentation | 1800 BCE | Fermentation | Fruits that are left standing ferment and form alcohol and other sugars. By 1800 BCE, laws were in place for misdeeds committed while drunk, and the process of leavning bread was perfected. | Egypt | agriculture | Science | ||||||||||||||||||||
34 | law | 1775 BCE | Code of Laws | Social conventions work up to a point, but a complex society needs more hierarchy, mistrust, and a need to codify custom. First known law code was inscribed by Hammurabi on an 8-foot tall stone pillar. | King Hammurabi | Babylon | writing, empire | Culture | |||||||||||||||||||
35 | medicine | 1550 BCE | Recorded medicine | Ancient medical remedies included ritualized behavior, use of plants and animals. First surviving account of medical remedies is called Eber's Papyrus. | Egypt | ceremonial-burial,writing | Science | ||||||||||||||||||||
36 | alphabet | 1500 BCE | Phonetic alphabet | To simplify complex ideographic written languages of the time, the Phonecian alphabet instead used a symbol for each sound to construct words. | Phoenicia | writing | Culture | ||||||||||||||||||||
37 | monotheism | 1375 BCE | Monotheism | Earlier humans believed in many supernatural influences, one for each common and abstract object. Amenhotep first accepted just one god (sun), but his reign failed, eventually central to Judaism. | Pharoah Amenhotep IV | Egypt | literature | Culture | |||||||||||||||||||
38 | dye | 1200 BCE | Resistant dyes | Earlier artists used colored soils for paintings, limited color palette. Blue and red was later found in indigo and madder extracted from plants. One sun and water resistant dye came from snail in Tyre. | Phoenicia | art | Culture | ||||||||||||||||||||
39 | sea-navigation | 1100 BCE | Sea navigation | Sea ventures were restricted to coast hugging, and the distant sea was feared and revered (cf. Homer). Phoenicians used the big dipper to find north, and relied on oars to mitigate bad winds. | Phoenicia | river-boat | General | ||||||||||||||||||||
40 | steel | 1000 BCE | Steel | Smelting using wood never yielded iron because the flame wasn't hot enough. Charcoal, formed by burning wood with low oxygen, burned hot enough to melt iron. Initially too fragile, alloying with carbon yielded steel. | Hittite | bronze | General | ||||||||||||||||||||
41 | arch | 750 BCE | Architectural arches | Two vertical pieces capped by a horizontal roof is simple but weak and not condusive to long spans. Arranging the cover in a semicircular arch is more structurally sound. | Etruscan | stone-monument | Design | ||||||||||||||||||||
42 | aqueduct | 700 BCE | Aqueducts | Cities were built close to fresh water, but as they grew further from the river, needed water delivery infrastructure beyond wells. | Sennacherib | Assyria | stone-monument, irrigation | Design | |||||||||||||||||||
43 | zoo | 700 BCE | Zoos | Hunting animals for food, sports, artifacts was common. Keeping rare animals in zoos and plants in botanical gardens was first done in Assyria. | Sennacherib | Assyria | animal-dom | Design | |||||||||||||||||||
44 | sundial | 700 BCE | Improved sundials | Gnomon was tilted north and hours were labeled. | Egypt | simple-sundial | Science | ||||||||||||||||||||
45 | library | 640 BCE | Libraries | Books on clay or papyrus were rare and expensive since they had to be manually copied by literate scribes. Only monarchs could accumulate thousands of books. | Ashurbanipal | Assyria | literature, nation | Design | |||||||||||||||||||
46 | coin | 640 BCE | Currency (Coins) | Trade between cultures was done by barter, but required a double coincidence of wants. Gold became the default currency, and was meticulously weighed until coins of standard weight were introduced. | Ardys | Lydia | scale, nation, writing | Culture | |||||||||||||||||||
47 | eclipse | 585 BCE | Solar eclipse predicted | Eclipses were seen as frightening, evil omens. The first solar eclipse was predicted by Thales on May 28, 585 BCE. | Thales | Greece | numbers, calendar | Space | |||||||||||||||||||
48 | water-element | 580 BCE | Water as element | What is everything made of? Thales theorized everything was fundamentally made of water. | Thales | Greece | sea-navigation | Science | |||||||||||||||||||
49 | irrational-numbers | 520 BCE | Irrational numbers | Pythagoras first believed whole numbers including fractions were the basis of the universe. However what about a unit isoceles right triangle with hypotenuse √2? | Pythagoras | Greece | numbers | Math | |||||||||||||||||||
50 | realistic-maps | 510 BCE | Realistic maps | A Greek traveler traveled the Persian empire and drew a realistic map covering thousands of miles, including parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. | Hecateus | Greece | writing, empire | General | |||||||||||||||||||
51 | ocean-navigation | 500 BCE | Ocean navigation | Spurred by depleted tin resources needed for bronze, Phoenicians ventured through Gibraltar and into the Atlantic, finding "tin islands", potentially Britain. Likely circumnavigated Africa. | Phonecia | sea-navigation,bronze | General | ||||||||||||||||||||
52 | cadaver | 500 BCE | Human dissection | Animals had been butchered so much was known about their internal organs, not so humans. Saw arteries, veins, nerves. | Alcmaeon | Greece | medicine | Science | |||||||||||||||||||
53 | abacus | 500 BCE | Abacus | Each row represents a power of ten, and contains ten beads. A very early and important computing machine. | Egypt | numbers | Math | ||||||||||||||||||||
54 | venus-named | 500 BCE | Venus named | The Babylonians first saw the evening star (Hesperos), and the morning star (Phorphoros), but these turned out to be the same planet, Venus. | Pythagoras | Greece | writing | Space | |||||||||||||||||||
55 | dream-interpretation | 480 BCE | Dream interpretation | Once viewed as messages from the gods (eg. Joseph in Bible), Heracleitus suggested dreams have no meaning outside one's own thoughts. | Heracleitus | Greece | literature | Science | |||||||||||||||||||
56 | atom | 440 BCE | Atoms | Leucippus theorized that every event has a natural cause. Democritus expanded this suggesting that all matter was composed of tiny particles, and maybe there are billions of stars that are too far to be seen. | Democritus | Greece | water-element | Science | |||||||||||||||||||
57 | epilepsy | 420 BCE | Epilepsy | Epilepsy the disease discovered. Hippocrates thought disease was due to a misbalance between the four humors: blood, phlegm, bile, black bile. | Hippocrates | Greece | medicine | Science | |||||||||||||||||||
58 | catapult | 400 BCE | Catapult | Greek hoplites weilding armor, sword and shield were effective against other units but not city walls. Catapults were designed to do that, first artillery. | Dionysius | Greece | numbers,bow | War | |||||||||||||||||||
59 | university | 387 BCE | Advanced schools | Plato founded a school on grounds once owned by Academus, so called the Academy. Plato's student Aristotle founded his own school called Lyceum. | Plato | Greece | library | Culture | |||||||||||||||||||
60 | heliocentric-theory | 350 BCE | Non-geocentric theory | Philolatus thought everything rotated around some central fire (not earth). Ponticus thought maybe Venus and Mercury circled the sun (but sun circles the earth). | Philolaus | Greece | writing | Space | |||||||||||||||||||
61 | logic | 350 BCE | Logic | First formal system of reasoning. Aristotle wrote "Organon", describing how to draw conclusions from premises. | Aristotle | Greece | numbers | Math | |||||||||||||||||||
62 | spherical-earth | 350 BCE | Spherical earth theory | Looking around, the earth looks flat, but over long distances it seems to have curvature (eg. ships hulls dissapear first, then masts). | Pythagoras | Greece | ocean-navigation | Geography | |||||||||||||||||||
63 | five-elements | 350 BCE | Five elements theorized | Aristotle's model had concentric circles of elements: earth at center, surrounded by water, surrounded by air, surrounded by fire (sometimes seen as lightning), and the heavens made of aether. | Aristotle | Greece | atom | Science | |||||||||||||||||||
64 | animal-classification | 350 BCE | Animal classification | Dissected 500 species, in particular the dolphin, unlike other fish, seems to have placenta and milk, so classified it with mammals. | Aristotle | Greece | animal-dom | Science | |||||||||||||||||||
65 | star-maps | 350 BCE | Star maps | Improved on the best earth maps. The sky is hard to map because there are no physical landmarks. Drew out latitude and longitude lines to identify locations. | Eudoxus | Greece | realistic-maps | Space | |||||||||||||||||||
66 | botany | 320 BCE | Botany book | Theophrastus, one of Aristotle's students, wrote a book on botany, including 550 plant species. | Theophrastus | Greece | university | Science | |||||||||||||||||||
67 | paved-road | 312 BCE | Paved roads | Once carts and wheels were common, roads were needed. Initially covered by gravel, later paved, roads led to better logistics for commerce and armies. | Appius Claudius | Greece | stone-monument, cart | General | |||||||||||||||||||
68 | geometry | 300 BCE | Geometry | The Greeks took a more theoretical approach to geometry than the applied Egyptians. Euclid's "Elements" compiled the axioms (taken as given) and built geometry up from them. | Euclid | Greece | logic, university | Math | |||||||||||||||||||
69 | tides | 300 BCE | Tides | Pytheas explored the British Isles, as far as Norway or Iceland. He observed and described tides (not visible in the Mediterranean due to narrowness of Gibraltar) | Pytheas | Greece | ocean-navigation | General | |||||||||||||||||||
70 | arteries-veins | 300 BCE | Arteries vs veins | Distinguished between arteries and veins, and thought that arteries carried air. | Praxagoras | Greece | cadaver | Science | |||||||||||||||||||
71 | brain-areas | 280 BCE | Parts of brain | Herophilus divided nerves into sensory and motor, described the retina. Erasistratus distinguished the cerebrum and cerebellum. Then paused for religious reasons. | Erasistratus, Herophilus | Greece | cadaver | Science | |||||||||||||||||||
72 | moon-sun-size | 280 BCE | Moon and sun size estimate | When Anaxagoras suggested the Sun was the size of Greece, he was exiled. 200 years later, Aristarchus estimated sun to be gigantic and venus/mars as comparable in size to Earth. | Aristarchus | Greece | geometry,heliocentric-theory | Space | |||||||||||||||||||
73 | lighthouse | 280 BCE | Lighthouses | The Lighthouse of Alexandria (at Pharos) stood 280 ft high, with stairs to carry wood up. The light of the burning wood was visible 35 miles out. | Greece | ocean-navigation,stone-monument,geometry | General | ||||||||||||||||||||
74 | water-clock | 270 BCE | Water clocks | Sundials only work when there's sun, and aren't portable. Hourglasses and candles could also work. Water clocks were more precise, but still crude. | Ctesibius | Greece | sundial, nation | Math | |||||||||||||||||||
75 | lever-math | 260 BCE | Lever mathematics | Levers have been used for a long time, but Archimedes calculated the math. Archimedes also worked out buoyancy and estimated the value of pi to be 3.142. | Archimedes | Greece | logic, university | Math | |||||||||||||||||||
76 | earth-size | 240 BCE | Earth size estimate | In Aswan, the sun is directly overhead. By comparing it to the 7 deg offset in Alexandria and using the cities' relative location Eratosthenes estimated earth circumference to be 25k miles. | Eratosthenes | Greece | geometry, river-boat | Geography | |||||||||||||||||||
77 | year-number | 240 BCE | Standardized years | Formerly years were called "the seventh year of King X". Eratosthenes matched these dates onto a global timeline. | Eratosthenes | Greece | calendar | Culture | |||||||||||||||||||
78 | great-wall | 214 BCE | Great Wall | Great Wall is largest construction project ever. First made of earth, later of brick, extending for 1500 miles. Shih Huang Ti burned all known books in 214 BCE, explaining why little is known about China before then. | Shih Huang Ti | China | stone-monument | Design | |||||||||||||||||||
79 | parchment | 170 BCE | Parchment | Egypt was the only source of papyrus, and they were not eager to share. Parchment from treated animal skins is more durable, can be reused, but is expensive. | Eumenes II | Pergamum (Greece) | animal-dom | Culture | |||||||||||||||||||
80 | moon-distance | 150 BCE | Distance to moon estimate | Hipparchus made the first trig tables. He used trig to calculate the moon's parallax by comparing its position to the stars from multiple points on earth. | Hipparchus | Greece | geometry, river-boat | Space | |||||||||||||||||||
81 | star-maps-better | 134 BCE | Better star maps | Improved on the previous star maps by including magnitudes, and including over a thousand stars, and incorporating lat long from earth maps. | Hipparchus | Greece | star-maps | Space | |||||||||||||||||||
82 | glass-blowing | 100 BCE | Glass blowing | Previously, glass was hard to manipulate, but it was found that glass could be blown like a soap bubble. Glass became cheaper and could be used for vessels. | Syria (Greece) | glass | General | ||||||||||||||||||||
83 | water-wheel | 85 BCE | Waterwheels | Human and animal muscle was expensive. What if you could use inanimate forces like wind pushing sails? First powered mills. | cart | General | |||||||||||||||||||||
84 | julian-calendar | 46 BCE | Julian calendar | Julian calendar adopted, inspired by Egyptian calendar. Some months had 30 and some 31 days. An extra day every four years (leap). | Sosigenes | Greece | year-number | General | |||||||||||||||||||
85 | climactic-zone | 25 | Climactic zones | Mela suggested earth be divided into north and south frigid zones around the poles, a torrid zone around the equator and temperate zones in between. | Pomponius Mela | Greece | realistic-maps,spherical-earth | Geography | |||||||||||||||||||
86 | medicinal-plants | 50 | Recorded medicinal plants | After serving as a medic in Roman army, he wrote "Materia Medica" which described 600 plants, 1000 drugs. Start of pharmacology. | Pedanius Dioscorides | Greece | medicine | Science | |||||||||||||||||||
87 | basic-steam-engine | 50 | Rudimentary steam motion | The Aeolipile was a bladeless radial steam turbine which spins when the central water container is heated. It worked like a modern lawn sprinkler, using the force of flowing steam for motion. It had no bearing on society. | Hero | Greece | fire | General | |||||||||||||||||||
88 | paper | 105 | Paper | Instead of relying on expensive reed, process made paper from any tree. Took 1000 years to reach Europe. | Tsai Lun | China | parchment | General | |||||||||||||||||||
89 | geocentric-universe | 140 | Geocentric universe | Ptolemy wrote that the sun and planets rotate around the earth in circular planets and worked out the math for predicting planetary motions. Remained canon for 14 centuries. | Ptolemy | Greece | star-maps-better | Space | |||||||||||||||||||
90 | spinal-cord | 180 | Spinal cord | Galen worked at a gladiator school which gave him insights into human anatomy. He also cut animals’ spines to see resulting paralysis. | Galen | Greece | medicine | Science | |||||||||||||||||||
91 | algebra | 250 | Algebra | Most Greek math focused on geometry, but Diophantus focused on problems that were less visual, usually equations with multiple unknowns. | Diophantus | Greece | geometry | Math | |||||||||||||||||||
92 | tea | 250 | Tea | Reduced infection since it required water to be boiled | China | agriculture | Culture | ||||||||||||||||||||
93 | alchemy | 300 | Recorded alchemy | Chemical change was intuitively understood: pottery from clay, metals from ore, glass from sand. Zosimus summarized ancient alchemy. Ultimately led nowhere. | Zosimus | Egypt (Greece) | five-elements | Science | |||||||||||||||||||
94 | metal-stirrup | 300 | Metal stirrups | Larger horses were bred to carry more, so riders were carried on saddles. Stirrups gave more stability for the rider and enabled to strike from horseback. | China | steel, horse | War | ||||||||||||||||||||
95 | wheelbarrow | 400 | Wheelbarrows | A one wheeled cart that relied on lever action to carry a lot more than a human can. Potentially invented much earlier than 400. | China | steel | General | ||||||||||||||||||||
96 | dome | 537 | Architectural domes | Advanced dome making techniques perfected. The Hagia Sophia was 108 feet across and 180 feet high. | Emperor Justinian | Rome | geometry, arch | Design | |||||||||||||||||||
97 | silk-europe | 552 | Silk | Supposedly invented in 2480 BCE in China, Silk was in high demand in Rome and expensive, so Justinian arranged to bring back silkworms and the silk making process from China. By 552 Constantinople was producing. | Emperor Justinian | Rome/China | paved-road | Science | |||||||||||||||||||
98 | turnplow | 600 | Turnplows | A plow with a vertical knife-blade that cut deep into the earth. Useful for damp, moist ground, led to increase in carrying capacity. | Slavs | plow, steel | General | ||||||||||||||||||||
99 | greek-fire | 673 | Greek fire | The Greeks devised a napalm-like weapon which would continue to burn on water, enabled them to defend Constantinople from Arab invaders through terror. | Callnicus | Byzantium | catapult, alchemy | War | |||||||||||||||||||
100 | porcelain | 700 | Porcelain | Eventually came to Europe, known as “China” and became the luxury replacement for wood dishes. | China | pottery | Culture |