Topic 2_ Cradle of Primitive to early progress in science and technology: The Great Early Civilization

Science and technology have been around us since time immemorial. They began when human beings
started protecting themselves from dangers. When human beings fed themselves when they felt hungry.
When human beings cured the sickness of their loved ones. When human beings migrated to other lands
to find food and shelter. Science and technology help us from the beginning of time. They help us make
easy our life.

Besides, human beings used tools to solve problems, hunt animals, cultivate the soil, and plant crops for
their everyday food. They used tools to build houses, and build carriages to transport their goods on
lands, in rivers, and seas.

As time goes on, science and technology advance, from the primitive stage to the contemporary one.
People used wood and stone to make tools. Tools that will ease their difficulty in communicating,
cooking, hunting, traveling, and working. Then they discover the usefulness of metal. They began
forming tools from this piece of metal. Weaponry became durable and well-built. Chopping and scraping
became easy for them.

Life becomes complicated when human beings start building a community, then ancient cities. Examples
of these ancient civilizations are the Sumerians and the Babylonian civilizations in Mesopotamia,
Egyptian, Greek, and Roman civilizations, and Chinese civilizations.

The Sumerians started to develop the first writing system called the cuneiform. It uses word pictures and
triangular symbols. They carved it on a clay tablet using a wedge tool and then they let it dry. They used
it to record important historical events and their daily life.

Its primary city is called “Uruk.” It is a wonderful and the first fully developed city in Mesopotamia. It has
buildings made of bricks made of clay mixed with reeds. They walled the city to protect it from wild
animals and neighboring enemies. It has a Ziggurat, another magnificent engineering design of the
Sumerians. It is also called “the mountain of God.” The “Ziggurat” is a holy place of their main god. Only
the priests can enter into it. Even today, people are amazed by the wonderful structure of the “Ziggurat
of Ur.”

Besides the buildings and houses in Sumeria, they contributed the idea to the world with the first
irrigation canals to bring water to their farmlands. And the dikes to control the flooding of the two rivers
the Euphrates and the Tigris.

Sumerians civilization bring forth the ideas of the following technologies - a sailboat to transport their
products to other lands, the wheel and axle to mill the grains, the plow to gather food and cultivate their
farmlands, and the construction of roads to make easy their travel and facilitate the transfer of food and
other products.

The Babylonians are great builders. It is situated near the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. One of their
contributions to the world is the idea of the “hanging gardens.” According to stories, King
Nebuchadnezzar built the garden in honor of his wife, Queen Amytis. However, we do not have physical
evidence to prove the veracity of the “hanging garden.” There is no archeological evidence or
documentation of the said garden. The only thing that we have are stories of historians and portraits of
the “hanging garden” by artists. If it is true, the garden is one of the greatest engineering and
architectural achievements of the world. And it is improbable to duplicate.

Egyptian civilization is witnessed in North Africa. The head of the kingdom is a pharaoh. The pharaoh
ordered the construction of many infrastructures. One of these is the famous pyramids. Many people of
today are awe-struck by the magnificent structure of the great pyramids. Besides, they are famous for
the first invented paper known as the papyrus. Papyrus is made of plants known as reeds. It is lighter
than a clay tablet. They introduce ink made of soot combined with different chemicals for writing
purposes. They also developed a writing system which is known as Hieroglyphics. It is patterned from the
Sumerian cuneiform, which is believed to be the gods’ gift to the Egyptians. They also introduce wigs,
cosmetics, perfumes, and water-clock or Clepsydra.

The Greek civilization began in Europe. It is the cradle of western philosophy. The Greeks are
mathematicians, astronomers, and philosophers. They have great contributions to science and
technology. They first introduce the alarm clock which is made up of drops of water or tiny stones that
drop inside a drum that gives a loud sound and serve as an alarm. The watermill is used for the milling of
grains and food processing. But their best contributions are in the form of knowledge – Socrates, Plato,
and Aristotle known as the Big Three in Greek Philosophy.

The Roman civilization, another group from the west, introduces politics, newspapers, Bound books or
codex, Roman architecture, and numerals.

The Chinese among others introduces silk, tea, the Great Wall of China, gunpowder, and woodblock
printing.

During the Middle Ages, Johann Gutenberg developed the printing press and Zacharias Janssen invented
the first compound microscope. During this period the telescope, compass, oars, and rudders used by
sea navigators are famous and made sea traveling safe and easy. It was also during this epoch that war
weapons were developed, such as bows and arrows, swords, and armor.

In the Modern era, machines were introduced for mass food production since the population was
growing. Louie Pasteur invented the Pasteurization process in the field of chemistry, then comes the
Petroleum refinery, telephones, and calculators.

In the Philippines, we have Salamander Amphibious Tricycles, Salt Lamps, Medical Incubators, Mosquito
Ovicidal or Larvicidal Trap Systems, and the famous E-JEEPNEY.