Pre-Columbian Science and Technology

Evidences of Science and Technology During Pre-Columbian Times

Olmec Civilization

• The Olmec were the first great Mesoamerican civilization.
• They flourished along the southern Gulf Coast of Mexico, primarily in Veracruz and Tabasco, from 1200 to 400 B.C.
• The name "Olmec" means "rubber people" in Nahuatl, the Aztec language.
• Olmecs constructed permanent city-temple complexes
• The complexes were located at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, La Venta, Tres Zapotes, and Laguna de los Cerros.
• Evidence suggests the Olmec practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism.
• The Olmec traded obsidian, ceramics, jade, serpentine, mica, rubber, pottery, feathers, and polished mirrors made of limonite and magnetite.
• Monuments and Olmec art pieces exist, including masks and figurines.
• The Olmec cultivated cacao, rubber, and salt.

Mayan Civilization

• The ancient Mayans were a diverse group of indigenous people
• They lived in parts of present-day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
• The Mayans are credited with scientific achievements in astronomy, engineering, medicine, and mathematics.
• The Mayans made advances in agriculture and technology.
• Mayans tracked the movement of stars and planets to predict events like eclipses.
• Venus was the most important astronomical object to the Mayans.
• The Mayan discovered an accurate calendar
• The developed ritual calendar in Mesoamerica used a 260-day count.
• The 260 calendar gave each day a name like days of the week and had 20 day names with symbols.
• Mayan writing used about 800 glyphs or symbols, each representing a word or syllable that could be combined.
• The Mayans built temples and cities without metal tools.
• There is evidence that the Maya produced rubber products.

Aztec Civilization

• The Aztecs established Tenochtitlan, present-day Mexico City, in 1325 A.D.
• Tenochtitlan was the capital and center of the Aztec Empire.
• Tenochtitlan served as the capital until the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztecs in 1520.
• The Aztecs saw an eagle on a cactus in marshland near Lake Texcoco's southwest border for their settlement.
• The Aztecs built causeways and canals for transportation in Tenochtitlan.
• The Aztecs were known as violent people who expanded their empire through warfare.
• They practiced human sacrifices and elaborate rituals, often removing beating hearts to appease gods.

Aztec Science and Technology

• The Aztecs developed dugout canoes for transporting themselves and goods through canals, lakes, and waterways.
• Aztec astronomy was important to their calendar which heavily reflected their gods.

Aztec Calendar

• The Aztec calendar consisted of a ritual 260-day cycle.
• The Aztec calendar system called Tonalpohualli, involved a 260-day cycle based on astronomical observations.
• It was broken into units called trecenas of 20 days that had their own name, symbol, deity, and augury.
• A 20-day group and another group of 13 numbered days ran simultaneously.

The Xiuhpohualli calendar designated when religious ceremonies and festivals would occur

• Was divided into 18 groups of 20 days, each with its own festival referred to as months.
• Aztec ritual and civil cycles returned to the same places relative to each other every 52 years, celebrated as the Binding Up of the Years, or the New Fire Ceremony.

Aztec Medicine

• The Aztec had advanced medicine
• Different forms such as ointments and drinks.
• This area of technology was recorded in the Badianus Manuscript, created by Aztec artists in 1552.

Inca Civilization

• The Inca civilization flourished in the Andean region of South America
• Dates back to from the early 15th century A.D until its conquest by the Spaniards in the 1530s.
• Machu Picchu is the most famous surviving archaeological site and was built as a retreat for an Incan emperor.
• In the Quechua language, "Machu Picchu" means "Old Peak."
• The site contains more than 100 flights of stairs.

Tawantinsuyu

• Tawantinsuyu means "Land of the Four Corners."
• The Inca had the largest empire.
• The Inca originated at the city of Cuzco in what is today Peru.
• The Inca built a road system of almost 25,000 miles.
• Quechua was the official language.

Inca Regions

• Chinchaysuyu in the north was the empire's most important agricultural region and covered much of modern Peru, Ecuador, and part of Colombia.
• Antisuyu in the East was located in the upper Amazon, featured rainforest, heavy rainfall, high humidity, and heavy vegetation.
• Contisuyu in the West had breathtaking vertical slopes rising from sea level to 19,000 feet (5,800 meters) in altitude, a land of dramatic peaks, volcanoes, and deep gorges.
• Collasuyu in the South a region in the high plains where grassland was ideal for llama and alpaca herding. It was a source of salt, potatoes, gold, silver, and copper.
• They had an abundance of maize (corn), dried llama, coca leaves, and alcohol and also sweet potatoes, quinoa, beans, and chili peppers

Inca Science and Technology

• Mummification was an important part of Inca funerary rites.
• November was "month of carrying the dead," a time to feed the mummies of ancestors.
• The finest Inca textiles were the Cumpi was reserved Inca nobility and the emperor.
• Clothes were made of llama and alpaca or vicuna wool and cotton.
• Inca objects were made of gold and silver.
• Inca used gold for ritual objects, trinkets, and jewelry.
• They created combinations of gold and silver, and gold and copper (called tumbaga).
• Inca craftsmen fitted building stones together perfectly without mortar.
• Objects as thin as a razor blade could not be inserted between the stones.
• Incas maintained two calendars in parallel called lunisolar.
• They tracked as two calendars the solar and lunar..
• Twelve lunar months fell eleven days short of a 365-day solar year.
• They tracked the equinoxes, solstices, and Venus cycles.
• The Inca used the Quipu as mnemonic devices to record numerical data and their history and literature.
• Incas performed skull surgeries to alleviate fluid buildup and inflammation from head wounds.
• Physical measures used by the Inca were based upon human body parts.
• Those units included fingers, distance between thumb and forefinger, palms, cubits, and wingspans.
• The Thatkiy or thatki or one pace was the most basic unit of distance.

Inca Weapons

• Bronze or bone-tipped spears.
• Two-handed wooden swords with serrated edges.
• Clubs with stone and spiked metal heads.
• Woolen slings and stones.
• Stone or copper headed battle-axes.
• Bolas (stones fastened to lengths).

Lesson 4: The State of Science and Technology During The Middle Ages (A.D 400- A.D 1300 in the Western World)

• Medieval times, Middle Ages, and Dark Ages describe the same period of time from 500 to 1500 A.D.
• The period covers from the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the Ottoman Empire.

Military Technologies in the Middle Ages

• A trebuchet is a revolutionized siege weapon that using uses counterweights and hurled stones very far.
• It was first used in the eastern Mediterranean basin
• The Longbow with massed, disciplinary archery was a weapon.
• It was used by the English against the French during the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453).
• The Longbow was powerful, accurate, and contributed to the eventual demise of the medieval knight class.
• The Steel Crossbow was the first handheld mechanical crossbow.
• Was a European innovation came different cocking aids to enhance draw power.
• The Complete full plate appeared by the end of the 14th century and was a type armour
• Chains were made from a thousand metal rings-clock and referred to as a hauberk.
• Plate armour offered the best personal protection and demonstrated skilled metal work.

Other Inventions in the Middle Ages:

• The blast furnace or cast iron first appeared in middle Europe around 1150.
• The hourglass was made from a dependable, affordable, and accurate measure of time.
• Vertical windmills are a pivot-able post mill efficient at grinding grain or draining water.
• Spectacles are composed of convex lenses to help far-sighted people see.
• Chess is said to have originated in India in the 6th century and spread through Persia.
• Chess spread to the Muslim world and then to Europe.
• The rules evolved to the modern game by the 15th century.
• Mirrors were made 1180 by Alexander Neckham who said to get rid pf the lead behind the glass and there will be no image.
• Oil paint was in 1410 in Flanders by Jan van Eyck and was a stable oil mixture.
• Tide Mill: a special type of water mill driven by a tidal rise and fall.
• Spinning wheel was made in india and reached Europe via the Middle East during the European Middle Ages and replace hand held spinning.

Agricultural Innovations

• Heavy wheeled plows were important in the cultivation of rich, heavy, and often wet soils of Northern Europe
• Advances allowed significant impacts on agricultural practices.
• Horse collars allowed for more horse pulling power
• Heavy plows and horseshoes allows horses to adapt to rocky terrain, mountains, and carry heavier loads.
• Artesian Wells have thin rods that cut with iron and placed borehole to strike with a hammer in the ground
• Underground water forces water pressure up the hole without requiring pumping, named in Artois region where 1st well was drilled.
• Wheelbarrows aid construction, mining, and farming, as well as carrying materials from one place to another.

Other Inventions

• New inventions developed in the 1000s when The first universities were developed
• In the 1100's modern universities emerged throughout Western Europe like Oxford and Cambridge England.
• There was the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages when the Black Death came during the 14th century.
• The Black Death introduced quarantine techniques that used 40 days isolate to avoid the Republic of Ragusa spread diseases.