Technology of the ancients ...

[WhiteCrow]

Spinning off from the "Security issues in IE" debate, and because we're celebrating the end of the first Doctor Who story which dealt with similar themes.

What was the most important technological discovery of early man?

1) The Spear circa UNKNOWN

Bringer of death. Allowed man to hunt much bigger animals, allowed man to defend himself against stronger, hostile animals.

2) Fire circa 8,000 BC

Bringer of warmth. Allowed the cooking of what would be inedible without cooking, allowed man to stay warm, repels animals.

3) Agriculture circa 10,000BC

The feeder. Allowed tribes to feed themselves all year around.

4) The Wheel circa 4,000BC

Supporter of loads. A relative newcomer, but still elligable as created within the late Neolithic. It's been the basis of technology ever since. Allowed much further travel, milling, pottery ...

5) Writing circa 4,000BC

The teacher. A way of recording and passing on information. Another late comer, but still valid.

[Rob McCow]

A good list but...

Where the hell is the VidFIRE process? Surely the most important invention of all time!

[WhiteCrow]

Digging about for info on early man ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cro-Magnon

Surviving Cro-Magnon artifacts include huts, cave paintings, carvings and antler-tipped spears. The remains of tools suggest that they knew how to make woven clothing. They had huts, constructed of rocks, clay, bones, branches, and animal hide/fur.

These early humans used manganese and iron oxides to paint pictures and may have created the first calendar around 15,000 years ago

I've been able to reconstruct one of these early calenders ...

[Jeff]

Digging about for info on early man ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cro-Magnon





I've been able to reconstruct one of these early calenders ...

Apparently even they didn't like hotlinking.

[Rob McCow]

It's arguable as to which of those are discoveries and which are inventions. Fire is certainly a discovery!

[Dirk Gently]

It's a good list but where is "Using Internet Explorer"? Apparently you have to be from around this era to still be using that!

[SiHart]

Writing, I think, because communication is very important to any developing culture.

Si xx

[WhiteCrow]

I've been able to reconstruct one of these early calenders ...

I've corrected that.

I'm thinking of starting a thread in the new year "why the caveman is better than you".

Anyway - I went for agriculture as an important invention.

Writing was important. But chimps have shown you can have a culture without writing or indeed communication.

Agriculture allowed mankind to move away from hunter gatherer existence to one where he could control his environment, and food could be more regularly relied on.

[Jeff]

I'm thinking of starting a thread in the new year "why the caveman is better than you".

Cavemen are probably way more physically fit than most of us. They would probably kick our asses.