|
Ancient
BC Innovation Timeline |
| B.C. |
| YEAR |
Milestone |
| 500,000 |
Fire tamed by Homo erectus. |
| 50,000 |
Homo sapiens (modern man) appears. |
| 20,000 |
Invention of the bow and arrow. |
| 12,000 |
Domestication of animals begins. |
| 8000 |
Agriculture invented. |
| 7000 |
Pottery. |
| 6000 |
Weaving. |
| 5000 |
Irrigation systems developed in the Middle East. |
| 4000 |
First use of metals - copper smelted for making tools. |
| 3500 |
Bronze, a hard copper tin alloy, discovered and used for
making weapons, tools and armor.
Wheel
appears in Mesopotamia
Writing invented in Sumeria. |
| 3000 |
Abacus
invented by the Chinese. |
| 2800 |
Egyptians devise the 12-month, 365-day calendar. |
| 2737 |
Tea
invented in China by Emperor Shen Nung |
| 1550 |
Earliest surviving medical textbook written in Egypt. |
| 1100 |
Iron Age starts. |
| 700 |
First purpose-made sundials appear. |
| 650 |
Standardized coins used by Greeks. |
| 512 |
Chinese produce cast iron from blast furnaces. |
| 510 |
Greeks produce the earliest surviving world map. |
| 400 |
Two Greeks invent the catapult, the first artillery weapon. |
| 312 |
Work begins on the Appian Way, the first great Roman road. |
| 210 |
Archimedes, the Greek scientist, invents the Archimedean
screw, for raising water, and works out the theory of levers. |
| 100 |
Glassblowing invented in Syria. |
|
