The Seventy Great Inventions Of The Ancient World - Hardcover

Fagan, Brian M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0500051305 ISBN 13: 9780500051306

Publisher: Thames and Hudson, 2004

Synopsis

Stone choppers, eyed needles, camel saddles, chariots, and contraceptives: the past is paved with remarkable inventions. The latest book in this popular series takes us on an eye-opening and unusual journey through early human innovationsùsome fundamental and others intriguing or bizarre. An international team of scientists, archaeologists, and historians reveals seventy of the most extraordinary inventions, from two-and-a-half million years ago up to the early medieval period.
The book begins with the basic technologies of stone, fire, woodworking, ceramics, metallurgy, glass, and weaving. We watch Stone Age flint-knappers at work and look over the shoulders of early metalworkers as they fabricate glittering ornaments in copper and gold. Some of the most fundamental questions of the past are addressed. How and where did agriculture evolve? How did Romans and others heat and plumb their dwellings? What roles did cooking, food preservation, and fermentation play in the development of ancient cuisine? How did the wheel and cart change human life? When did the first roads appear, and when did long-distance seafaring begin?
Later sections look at the origins of hunting, war and sport, art and science, and personal adornment. Weapons of war evolved from spears, bows, and arrows to swords, shields, catapults, and crossbows. The book examines the earliest human art traditions - body painting and tattooing - and traces the beginning of writing, the early use of codes and ciphers, and the origins of calendars and astronomy.

About this title

About the Author:

Brian M. Fagan is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a foremost authority on world prehistory. Among his many books are The Seventy Great Mysteries of the Ancient World.

From Booklist:

Fagan organizes into six categories the 70 things his three dozen scholarly contributors present. The first category describes the basic natural materials--stone, clay, and wood--with which humanity began to alter the environment. Ensuing categories catalog their uses, such as in hunting, farming, or artwork. With the rise of civilizations, anonymous inventors devised instruments of communication, and the authors informatively cover ships, roads, irrigation and plumbing, literacy, and so forth. Stuffed with hundreds of color photographs, Fagan's work is an estimable spruce-up option for any library. Gilbert Taylor
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About this edition

• Publisher: Thames and Hudson
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0500051305
• ISBN 13: 9780500051306
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304