inventions - pannous/hieros GitHub Wiki

Timeline_of_historic_inventions@wikipedia
paleolithic-inventions
neolithic-inventions
chalcolithic inventions
Bronze Age on wikipedia is inprecise/outdated:
Arsenic bronzes started earlier and in Anatolia, Caucasus, the Balkans.

Cold copper working was already part of the early European farmers before they reached the Danube and beyond

The dating of inventions is very tentative, a 'first' find might point to the general region, later broad adoption of an invention can be distant from its origin. Also there are often many stages of an invention, as becomes evident in the development of strings and ropes, which first occurred naturally and later were refined by thicker and thicker multi-plyed strings into proper cords. Interestingly hemp ropes reached China only 2800 BC! A similar multi step development of clay vessels, fired clay and proper ceramics is much easier to trace because of the durability of clay objects.

One of the most important invention of mankind: bow-and-arrow is archeologically hard to distinguish from other arrow techniques, such as pygmy blow arrows. Arrowheads first appeared 70k BP in South Africa, 48k BP Sri Lanka, and became global after the last glacial. 9000 BC well preserved Holmegaard bow in Denmark.

Before the rise of the Brotherhood of Copper Kings, the early farmers spread their culture, technology and inventions within well connected networks, here dubbed International Farming Society, sometimes the Megaliths.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_historic_inventions

Inventions of the neolithic Following Paleolithic inventions (omitting the Mesolithic)

some people ate starchy plants more than 100,000 years ago. Eating roots, tubers and grains might have initialized the upper paleolithic.
humans have more copies of the gene that produces enzymes to digest starch than do any of our primate relatives. “Humans have up to 20 copies, and chimpanzees have 2,” plants were popular among Neanderthals too. humans were cooking and eating carbs almost as soon as they could light fires.

Agricultural and Proto-Agricultural Eras

The end of the Last Glacial Period ("ice age") and the beginning of the Holocene around 11.7 ka coincide with the Agricultural Revolution, marking the beginning of the agricultural era, which persisted until the industrial revolution.

Neolithic and Late Mesolithic

During the Neolithic period, lasting 8400 years, stone remained the predominant material for toolmaking, although copper and arsenic bronze were developed towards the end of this period.

At the beginning of the Neolithic villages like Hureyra were housing a few hundred people at most, but perhaps the largest collection of people permanently living in one place anywhere at that time.

The inhabitants of Abu Hureyra obtained food by hunting, fishing, and gathering of wild plants. Gazelle was hunted primarily during the summer, when vast herds passed by the village during their annual migration.[4]:41-42 These would probably be hunted communally, as mass killings also required mass processing of meat, skin, and other parts of the animal. The huge amount of food obtained in a short period was a reason for settling down permanently: it was too heavy to carry and would need to be kept protected from weather and pests.

Other prey included large wild animals such as onager, sheep, and cattle, and smaller animals such as hare, fox, and birds, which were hunted throughout the year. Different plant species were collected, from three different eco-zones within walking distance (river, forest, and steppe). Plant foods were also harvested from "wild gardens" with species gathered including wild cereal grasses such as einkorn wheat, emmer wheat, and two varieties of rye.[4]:41 Several large stone tools for grinding grain were found at the site.

12.8 ka Hureyra was hit by a comet

It was during the intentional sowing of cereals in more favorable refuges like Mureybet that these first farmers developed domesticated strains during the centuries of drought and cold of the Younger Dryas. When the climate abated about 9500 BCE they spread all over the Middle East with this new bio-technology, and Abu Hureyra grew to a large village eventually with several thousand people.

Natufian 12,000 – 9,500 BC

Super regional trade networks or cultures like Khiamian c. 10,200–8,800 BCE:

Pre-Pottery_Neolithic PPN circa 10,000 — 6,500 BCE


Jerf al Ahmar plaques


polished granite and alabaster jars before pottery

There was considerable overlap between the development status as even today there are hunter gatherer societies.
The following list gives estimates of carbon dating, the true inventions might have pre-occurred centuries or millennia before, especially when forming a continuum with preceding Proto technologies:

  • ? Ka: baskets

  • ? Ka: care for the dead

  • ? Ka: hunter-collectors built up stores for long-term food security

  • ? ka: kites, ditches, traps and fences?

  • ? Ka: pointy pick axes

  • ? ka: hoe ⇨ hand-ards ⇨ ard (scratch plough) ? ⇨ ox-plough 3800BC

  • ? medicine => 5000BC amputation France

  • ? food preservation and conservation Drying, smoking, fermenting, salting, pickling, etc. , adding honey (for sugar)

  • ? fire => hearth => oven brewery kiln furnace

  • ? drained tent cities via shoveled ditch trenches => brick and pipe drainage

  • 14 ka Shubayqa Jordan baked bread

  • 13 ka: beer in Haifa, Natufian

  • 13 ka: dentistry in italy (bitumen fillings) ⇨ 7000 BC in Baluchistan drill

  • 12 ka: chert arrows heads, with lateral notches, Khiamian? usage as awls and drills

  • 12-11 ka: Agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, Hureyra Karaca

  • 12–11 ka: Domestication of sheep in Southwest Asia (followed shortly by pigs, goats and cattle)

  • 11.5 ka houses were built on the ground level (before: half below ground)

  • 11.5-10.5 ka small female statuettes, symbolic burying of aurochs skulls (Khiamian)

  • 11.5 ka Totems (Shigir Idol), later in Americas

  • 11-8 ka: Domestication of rice in China

  • 11 ka: Constructed stone monument, megaliths – Göbekli Tepe, in Turkey

  • 11 ka: vat-fulls of porridge and stew, made from grain coarsely ground and processed on an almost industrial scale ⇨ gobekli

  • 11 ka: gobekli 10,000 grinding stones and nearly 650 carved stone platters and vessels, up to 200 litres of liquid

  • 9000 BC: Polished basalt axe & Jerf al Ahmar plaques proto writing?

  • 9000 BC: White ware burned lime containers

  • 9000 BC: small clay tokens for counting Mureybet

  • 9000 BC: Square Houses, explosive rapid growth of the use of cereals in near East

  • 9000 BC: Mudbricks, and clay mortar in Jericho.

  • 9000 BC: rammed earth walls in Fertile Crescent, later stabilized with lime or blood!

  • 8500 BC: millet cultivation 南庄头 Nánzhuāngtóu (& pottery)

  • 8000 BC: polished granite and alabaster jars (in Near East before pottery)

  • 8000 BC: Gesher basalt axes and various other tools, exported

  • 8000 BC Byblos arrowheads replaced the Mureybetian types, and other technological improvements

  • 8000–7500 BC: Proto-city – large permanent settlements, such as Tell es-Sultan (Jericho) and Çatalhöyük, Turkey.

  • 8000 BC: Patriarchic society Aşıklı Höyük??

  • 8000 BC: Oversea settlement of Mediteranian islands

  • 8th millennium bark cloth Çatalhöyük bast fibers from oak => barkcloth Guangxi ⋍5900 BC => Austronesia 3000 BC

  • 7900 BC: deep sea fishing (tuna), Franchthi Greece... see Whaling

  • 7500 BC: stone walled water well Atlit Yam (-12 m < NN)

  • 7500 BC: planned hunt & work camp : trading outpost(Umm Dabaghiya)

  • 7500 BC: Nabta Playa ceramics, megaliths, herding

  • 7500 BC: Neoliths reached Europe in Sesklo

  • 7000 BC: Tanned leather in the Indus Valley site of Mehrgarh, Pakistan.

  • 7000 BC: Dental drill in Mehrgarh, Pakistan.

  • 7000 BC: Alcohol fermentation – specifically mead, in China

  • 7000 BC: Sled dog and Dog sled, in Siberia.

  • 7000-6700 BC pottery reaching Hassuna, stone vessels and White Ware were still being used

  • 7000 BC two level houses in Çayönü Mureybet Beidha

  • 7000 BC kitchen & living rooms separated, upper levels used as granaries/workshops

  • 7th Millennium: copper hammering in Tell Sotto and Maghzaliyah

  • 7000-5000 BC Peiligang culture one of the oldest pottery in ancient China

  • 6500 BC Proper windows and doors in Basta near Beidha

  • 6500 BC Evidence of lead smelting in Çatalhöyük, Turkey

  • 6400 BC tholoi burial buildings in Yarim Tepe

  • 6200 BC Community vessels 85 liters, Nea Nikomedeia, Greece

  • 6200 BC Hip roof, clay mixed with hay over thatch (todo: older!)

  • 6200 BC spindle whorls for spinning wool, Nea Nikomedeia, Greece & Iran! =>

  • 6200 BC woolen threads, ropes, lines, leashes! (woolen cloth and laces only 2000 years later!)

  • 6000 BC: Whaling in Korea, Mediteranian, Basques and a bit later France (⇔ Megaliths!)

  • 6000 BC: Pottery Kiln in Mesopotamia Yarim Tepe(Iraq) after oven, metal furnace later

  • 6th Millennium: lead smelting and hot copper hammering in Anatolia and Yarim Tepe(Iraq)

  • 6000–4800 BC Samarra irrigation: Choga Mami 4700 BC 🗲 channels, flax?

  • 6,400 to 5,000 BC 'Ain Ghazal & Sha'ar HaGolan:

  • 6th millennium BC Yarmukian : 700 km trade network obsidian, pottery

  • 6th polished stone vessels made of alabaster (or marble) in Yarmukian

  • 6th Pebble streets in Yarmukian

  • 6th courtyard houses, ranging between 250 and 700 m² in Yarmukian

  • 6th Yarmukian : 4.15 m well

  • 6th Hassuna: jar burials with Venus & food => belief in the afterlife

  • 6th millennium BC: Irrigation in Khuzistan, Iran

  • 6000-3200 BC: Proto-writing found in present day Serbia and China; later in Iraq, Iran, Egypt and Pakistan.

  • 5500 BC: Barbie doll , Hamangia?

  • 5300 BC: War massacres genocide (again?)

  • 5300 BC: Hacilar heavy fortifications and small temple… newcomers!

  • 5000 BC: stamp seal with tally marks Tel Tsaf, Halaf culture

  • 5000 BC: silos with 200sq.m for 30 tons (20 families 1 year storage)

  • 5000 BC: Copper smelting in Serbia, after millennia of cold metal working

  • 5000 BC: Cotton thread, in Mehrgarh, Pakistan, connecting the copper beads of a bracelet.

  • 5000 BC: Seawall in Israel

  • 5th millennium BC: Lacquer in China

  • 5000–4500 BC: first preservation of old rowing oars in China!

  • Ubaid

  • 5000-4000 BC: two tier settlement hierarchy in Ubaid culture

  • 5000-4000 BC: centralized large sites of more than 10 hectares surrounded by smaller village sites

  • 4800 BC: Sailing! Kuwait, Ubaid 3

  • 4800-4400 BC: City Walls to protect valuable oyster shell production in Dimini & Sesklo (founded 7500 BC!)

  • 4700 BC Irrigation at Choga Mami vs Samarra 🗲 channels quickly spreading to Halaf

  • 4500–3500 BC: Lost-wax casting in Israel or the Indus Valley

  • 4400 BC: Fired bricks in China.

  • 5-4th BC: secondary products revolution

  • 4th BC: milk 𓌸𓂋𓏋, cheese, leather𓄛, 𓎛 ropes, 𓐛 lines, laces 𓎤, threads 𓐩, 𓋳 textiles 𓎙 …

  • 4th BC: beasts of burden :

  • 4th BC: animal-ard 𓍁 𓂋 𓏏 plowing with long irrigation furrows

  • 4th BC: 4th millennium specialized regional production centers:

  • 4th BC: woolworking => institutional sheep farming ( convertible husbandry )

  • 4th BC: wool => decline of flax freed land for the growth of cereals as well as sesame

  • 4000 BC?: silver Carpatho-Balkan zone, 3600BC Tepe Sialk

  • 4000 BC artificial harbor, Limantepe Izmir, Anatolia

  • 4000 BC: Probable time period of the first diamond-mines in the world, in Southern India.

  • 4000 BC: Paved roads, in and around the Mesopotamian city of Ur, Iraq (pebble roads see above)

  • 4000 BC: Plumbing. The earliest pipes were made of clay, and are found at the Temple of Bel at Nippur in Babylonia. Earthen pipes were later used in the Indus Valley c. 2700 BC for a city-scale urban drainage system, and more durable copper drainage pipes appeared in Egypt, by the time of the construction of the Pyramid of Sahure at Abusir, c.2400 BCE.

  • 4000–3500 BC: Wheel: potter's wheels in Mesopotamia and wheeled vehicles in Mesopotamia (Sumerian civilization), the Northern Caucasus (Maykop culture) and Central Europe (Cucuteni–Trypillia culture), reaching Harappa 3500 BC and China. Slow wheel tournette replaced by fast wheels after 3100 BC)

  • 4000-3500 BC: specialized ropes from fibers of reed, palms, flax, grass, papyrus, leather, or hair (China 2800BC)

  • Uruk widespread adoption of terracotta sickles

  • Uruk colonies, enclaves 𓄚 𓈖 𓏌 𓅱 𓉐 stations to control trade routes, often on high cliffs

  • 3500-2500 BC: Wheeled carts replacing drawn sledges

  • 3800-3500 BCE ox-plough Bubeneč, Czech Republic (replacing hoe 𓌸 and hand-ard 𓆱 𓏏 𓏤 rods) !

  • 3800 BC: Domestication of the onager wild donkey as pack & drough animal

  • 3500 BC: Domestication of the horse (maybe 1000 years earlier as food) riding maybe later.

  • 3500 BC: Wine as general anesthesia in Sumer, after millennia of usage as durable juice

  • 3630 BC: Silk garments (sericulture) in China

  • 3500 BC: Very early Indus script signs in Pakistan http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/334517.stm ⇔ King Scorpion

  • 3500 BC: Cylinder Seal emblem in Uruk and Susa after stamp seals in the Halaf culture

  • 3500 BC: three tier settlement hierarchy in Uruk culture vs two in Ubaid 4500 BC

  • 3400-3100 BC: tattoos in southern Europe, after Ubaid and likely Upper Paleolithic

  • 3300 BC: Rise of Cycladic culture and Minoan civilization (Featuring 5500 BC Barbie doll , Hamangia)

  • 3000 BC: Internationally Standardized weights!

  • 3rd BC: (donkey) caravans

  • 3rd BC: dromedary Arabia

  • 2800 BC: copper mirror or earlier

  • 2600 BC: Cotton was woven and dyed for clothing in Harappa (see 5000BC Cotton threads)

  • 2600 BC: "fowl for fighting" Harappa

Standardized specialized professions

These were inventions brought by the Early European farmers or developed synchronously

Final stage of Neolithic between proper copper age and bronze age: Halaf Hassuna Samarra Ubaid

Next see the spread of the Eneolithic, Chalcolithic Inventions between Vinca Varna and Mehrgarh

List of tools, inventions and techniques before the Neolithic:
natural medicine, trade, long-distance transportation, obsidian, pigments, projectile points, stone-tipped projectile weapons, Glue, Clothing, Heat treating, Beads, paints, Funerals, burial, Toys, Harpoons, Beds, Artistic markings, Symbolism, counting, arrows, bow-and-arrow, needle, Weirs, traps, Digging tools, wood-working tools, Instruments: sticks, wood-drum, Instruments: didgeridoo < proto-flutes, flutes, Ground stone tools, AXE (different uses: weapon, tree cutting, wood-working), mines, Domestication (animal friends), Mortar and pestle, Weaving, Star chart, Rope, Instruments: Bullroarer, flute, strings. Phallus, Figurines, Ceramics, Pottery, Dentistry, Stone-dagger, gourds

A good albeit not pure picture can be learned from observing Adaman and pygmy cultures with relatively little external influx. One has to note though that however primitive these cultures may appear, they might have adopted many of their tools recently over the last millennia.

Drums with alligator skins Neolithic China 5500–2350 BC.

The pre-copper transfer of domesticated animals and plants needs further investigation.

The bronze age came with a bag of refined Neolithic-inventions and new Chalcolithic inventions. Most had their beginnings a few thousand years earlier but only flourished under the central organization of copper kings:

  • kingship 𓀮

  • metallurgy (𓃀 𓈞 𓄑 bronze from 3000BC)

  • nobility 𓋞 𓋟 𓋠 money

  • professions, titles 𓏏 𓇋 𓏏 𓂅 and classes of craftsman 𓂓 𓏏 𓀋 , priests and warriors

  • Sklaven 𓋴 𓈎 𓂋 𓐓 𓋹 𓀏

  • criminals 𓐍 𓈖 𓂋 𓇋 𓍕 𓀁 𓀀 Gauner Ganoven

  • religious chanting 𓐍 𓈖 𓏏 𓅯 𓏥

  • structured cities with outer walls 𓉕, Gemäuer 𓇋 𓐝 𓅓 𓇥 𓂋 𓊅, quarters 𓊖 and palaces 𓉐 𓊁

  • state 𓐕 𓏏 𓏏 estates 𓐕 𓈇 𓏤 monopolies and statuets 𓏏 𓅱 𓏏 𓀾

  • human offerings 𓏲 𓂧 𓈖 𓏌 𓏲 𓍖 𓏛 𓏥 Hannuka 𓎛 𓈖 𓎡 𓏏 𓏌 𓂠 sacrifice 𓊃 𓆑 𓍿 𓌪 & slaughter 𓋴 𓆑 𓏏 𓌪

  • war and peace.

  • irrigation 𓈈, pipes and channels 𓎛 𓆰 𓈖 𓏌 𓏲 𓈗 𓈘 𓈇 𓏤

  • organized trade 𓂡 𓂝 𓏤, contracts 𓋩 𓐍 𓏏 𓏜 ≠ 𓎛 𓏏 𓂋 𓍢, markets 𓅓 𓂝 𓌨 𓂋 𓅱 𓏥 𓏛, merchands 𓁹 𓌕 𓈖

  • wine 𓇋 𓂋 𓊪 𓏉 sirup 𓋴 𓏌 𓎸 brand-wein 𓃀 𓈞 𓏏 𓎸 mead and dunkel-beer 𓏏 𓈖 𓌰 𓅓 𓏲 𓏌 𓏊 𓏥 brewing 𓀩

  • proto-writing 𓏞𓇅𓌃𓂇 written 𓅱 𓂧 𓈖 𓏴 script 𓆓 𓂋 𓏛 𓏯 accounting 𓎘

  • marks & Brand-Male 𓍋 𓃀 𓅱 𓌪

  • money: cowry shells, then silver rings and gold pieces shaped like sheep

  • secondary products revolution: milk 𓌸𓂋𓏋, cheese, leather𓄛, 𓎛 ropes, 𓐛 lines, laces 𓎤, threads 𓐩, 𓋳 textiles 𓎙 …

  • textiles: carpets 𓂓 𓏤 𓅷 𓏤 𓍘 𓇋 𓍱 𓏪 … (todo) covers 𓎛 𓃀 𓋴 𓋳 robes 𓌥 𓃀 sandals 𓊃 𓈖 𓂧 sanpodals 𓍿 𓃀 𓏏 𓋸 𓋸

  • sail 𓊡 boat, cult object in the Ubaid period - 3800BC.

  • papyrus𓇅⇨papers / bark⇨books / tablets𒁾⇨kitabs / leather𓄛⇨letters / textiles𓋳⇨texts / reed𓇅⇨written script γράφ

  • advanced bindings: 𓌟 𓍼 cords⇨records 𓌟 𓏌 𓏏 𓍼 𓏥 placards & charts 𓎡 𓄿 𓏏 𓀁 knots 𓋭 𓏏 𓏤 𓍢

  • second wave of domestication 𓀪 𓀫 𓀬 :

  • Bee𓆤, horse, camel, red-worms?, silk-moth

  • Multicrop system with wheat and barley as new main crops

  • carts pulled by bulls, donkeys or horses ! chariots only after 2000 BC

  • highly codified art

  • advanced burial rites

  • wheeled pottery

  • copper saw

Egyptians went wild with domestication and tried to domesticate hippos, elephants and crocodiles!

In China the full packaged arrived a few centuries delayed.

Despite cold hammering copper around the north american lakes as early as 5000BC, "no one has found evidence that points to the use of melting, smelting and casting in prehistoric eastern North America." This Curgan Copper Conquest only reached south america and through a very different route, probably near the peruvian pyramids of 3300BC.

astronomic-observatories (Turkey 6000BC?)
gnomon (sun-dial) 2300BC @ Taosi,Longshan

Greek Latecomers
The oxen-driven plow and local bronze-working reached Helladic cultures only about 2650BC in Early Helladic II (EHII)!
monumental architecture and fortifications, though first appeared 7000BC (?) spread in EHII.
apsidal houses, terracotta anchors, shaft-hole hammer-axes, ritual tumuli, and intramural burials precede the EHIII
Middle Helladic period (or MH), c. 2000 BC – c. 1550 BC, was a period of cultural retrogression,

four types of graves that are found at sites from the Middle Helladic period; pit graves, tholos graves, cist graves, and shaft graves.