Prehistoric tool development

• Early humans were curious and tried to understand nature by observing and recording patterns to find answers.
• Analyzing and organizing information led to the understanding of science.
• Ancient humans discovered tools and methods as science developed with archaeological excavations providing data and evidence.
• Science and technology was developed to search for survival needs, for practical reasons, and out of curiosity.

Discovery of Mud Plaster

• Discovery of mud plaster led to pottery and mud bricks for houses.
• The earliest known pottery originated in Japan around 10,000 B.C.

Science and Technology Achievements (3000-5000 B.C)

• Achievements in science can be categorized as discovery and invention.
• The Stone Age began 3.4 million years ago.
• The Stone Age is divided into Paleolithic (Early), Mesolithic (Middle), and Neolithic (New) periods, based on tool sophistication.
• Paleolithic ancestors developed four fundamental traditions, these include; pebble-tool, bi-facial tool, flake-tool and blade-tool traditions.
• Stone tools were made from flint and chart, shaped or chipped for use as cutting tools, flakes, blades, and weapons.
• Flaking produces tools for cutting, chopping, scraping, and sawing.

The Early Stone Age

• Includes basic stone toolkits made by early humans
• Oldowan toolkit: The oldest stone tools consisting of hammer stones with battering.
• Believed to be a product of Homo habilis.
• Studies show the oldest Oldowan tools were made by Australopithecus afarensis approximately 3.4 million years ago.
• Oldowan tools simple and difficult to distinguish from natural objects, producing only 3 inches of cutting edges per pound of flint.

Acheulan Toolkit

• Acheulan toolkit characteristics are handaxes and "large cutting tools".
• Acheulean stone tools were found in 1847 at St. Acheul on the Somme River in France.
• Acheulean Stone tools were bifacial which can produce 12 inches of edges.
• Prepared core technique was one of the innovations applied which involved carefully flaking on one side so that a flake of predetermined size and shape could be produced in a single blow.

Middle Stone Age Toolkits

• Included points hafted on shafts for spears, stone awls used to perforate hides and scrapers.
• Inventions include needles, skin clothing, harpoons, spear throwers, and fishing equipment.

Neolithic Period

• Characterized by herding societies, bronze smelting, agriculture, and the shift from food gathering to production.
• Development of pottery using sediments and clay

Bronze Age

• Lasted from 3000 BC to 1200 BC
• Second of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, following the Neolithic period.
• Marked by the start of mining and metallurgy.
• Denotes the first period where bronze was used.
• Smelting copper and alloying it with tin or arsenic produced bronze tools and weapons.

Iron Age

• 500 BC to 332 BC
• Period where iron was the dominant tool-making material.
• Production of tools and weaponry utilizing ferrous metallurgy characterized the Iron Age.
• Meteoric iron has been used since 3200 BC.
• Fire was the most important discovery/invention of the Paleolithic Era.

Sumerian Civilization in Mesopotamia (Iraq)

• Located in the southernmost region of ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq & Kuwait)
• The world's earliest civilization.
• Established in the region around 3600 BC.

Sumerian Civilization (Science and Technology Development)

• Cuneiform is the first known writing system, using word pictures in symbols (3100 BC).
• Sumerian clay tablets contain historical and cultural information.
• Clay tablets began as records for trade, evolving into symbols for laws and stories.
• The concept of wheels emerged shortly after 3500 BC with the potter's wheel.
• The wheel was a flat, hardened clay disk.
• Sumerians turned the clay-splattered wheel on its end and hooked it to wagons to move heavy objects.
• Sailboats were invented by Ancient Mesopotamia.
• Mesopotamia was near the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, requiring water transportation.
• The Sumerians were the first astronomers.
• The Sumerians mapped the movement of stars, planets, and moons into constellations, a system recognized by the ancient Greeks.
• Sumerians built foundational underpinnings of logic, mathematics, engineering, architecture, agriculture, transportation, and medicine.
• The Sumerians created the sexagesimal system which used counting units of 60 and as the basis of 360 degrees and a 60-minute hour.
• Developed systemized farming techniques involving seed plows and irrigation.
• Turned wool from sheep into textiles, mastering bleaching and dyeing.

Babylonian Civilization

• Was the ancient region bordering the Tigris and Euphrates river.
• Babylon served as the capital, as well as a commercial and religious hub.

Babylonian Civilization (Science and Technology Development)

• Hammurabi (1792-1750) was the first leader of the old Babylonian empire.
• Hammurabi promulgated the famous law code that served as the standard.
• Nebuchadnezzar II was a Neo-Babylonian emperor who ordered the construction of the Hanging Gardens and Ishtar Gate.
• He contributed to the development of science and technology by irrigation canals.
• Nebuchadnezzar also adopted the Sumerian sexagesimal system.

Eqyptian Civilization

• Was located in Northeastern Africa, along the Nile River.
• Settlement began around 5,000 BCE.

Egyptian Civilization (Science and Technology Development)

• Ancient Egyptians could heat metals to make weapons and utensils.
• Ancient Egyptians first made glass, jars and glass beads.
• Egyptians wrote using ink and make brushes made of papyrus reeds.
• Knowledge of anatomy and medicinal plants was key to their learning.
• Egyptians created a calendar with 29 ¹/₂, later 365 days, based on astronomy.
• Egyptians engaged in pottery and building.
• Egyptians were known for building the Great Sphinx of Giza and Ruins of Memphis.
• They built ships, canals, dikes, ditches with outlet systems, and also engaged in cooking, breeding of animals, and creating beauty products.

Cretan (Minoan) Civilization

• Arose on Crete and other Aegean islands like Santorini.
• Flourished from approximately 2600 to 1400 BC.
• The Minoans are an Aegean Bronze Age civilization ruled by King Minos.
• Minoans were mercantile people engaged in overseas trade.
• Crete exported it's wine, dile and jewelry and supposedly built the first major navy ship for trading.
• Minoans were skilled carvers with knowledge of mathematics, architecture, and engineering.
• Public halls, courtyards, drainage systems and religious shrines were constructed.
• The civilization did agriculture (polyculture) and breeding.
• Around 1600 BC, a violent earthquake shook the Minoan civilization, followed by the Theran eruption.
• The civilization was wiped out 50 years later.
• Cuneiform writing was comprised of characters imprinted by a reed pen.
• Obelisks, originally called tekheru, are tall, four-sided, with a tapering monument ending in a pyramid shape at the top.
• Sundials are shadow clocks that tell time by casting shadows reflected by the sun in 1000-1500 BC.

Explore prehistoric science, tool-making in the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, stone tool production from flint and chart, and the Oldowan and Acheulean toolkits. Discover techniques like the prepared core method and the significance of handaxes.