Science, Technology and Society in the Stone Age By: R.J. Forbes Technology is as old as man himself.

lf. Man was evidently a tool-making primate Very early human remains: Peking Man- accompanied by stones selected and often shaped to be used as tools.

The Biological Basis of Tool-Making Lower animals use stone or other natural object to: Break a shell Help them of their feeding or breeding habits Primates use tools to cope with unusual situations. Mans earliest natural tools: Hands Teeth The origin of tool making is probably related to the advanced functional anatomy of the human hand and its development. Though the muscles of the hands of monkeys differ from those of early man, the nervous mechanism, by which men are able to direct the movements of such muscles, is of a finer structure, thus making hand more flexible than those of other primates. The earliest tool-makers were largely-carnivorous. They needed sharper instruments for: Hunting Killing Cutting meat The larger and more efficiently-organized cerebrum of early man allowed him slowly to grope toward supplementing his natural tools. The development of speech guided mans earliest-tool making activities. The evolution of speech, which gave everything a name, perhaps helped to differentiate mans world. Early Stone Tools The first tools were of stone, and the earliest stone tools (called eoliths, because they date from the Eolithic or earliest Stone Age period over a million years ago) were pebbles already pre-shaped by nature and simply picked up from a river bed.

Specialized tools: Pear-shaped hand axes Scrapers

 Knives Pointed stones, etc. Archaeological data show that he had now fully become Homo sapiens, Man the Thinker. By then speech and language as important adjuncts of thought as well as communication must have been fully developed. His interest, not only in terrestrial objects and phenomena but also in those of the heavens, became more and more evident in the drawings he made on his tools, belongings, and later on the walls of caves. These show not only the rudiments of science but also demonstrate his technology, particularly his hunting techniques. The shrewd characterization in these drawings and the clear ordering of his observations which they demonstrate show the development of man's mind, though we are not allowed any intimate contact with his thoughts until the earliest writing appears in the Near East about 3500 B.C. Invention and Discovery Two elements governing mans technical process: Discovery The recognition and careful observation of new natural objects and phenomena Invention A mental process in which various discoveries and observation are combined and guided by experience into some new tool or operation. The Use of Fire Mans earliest conquest was fire. The earliest users of fire had to keep going those fires which they might have found in nature, for they had no means of producing it at will. Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) in Europe and Asia: Discovery of percussion method Lumps of flint and pyrites struck together would give off sparks with which tinder, straw, or other inflammable fuel could be set alight Heat of friction produced by rubbing pieces of wood together, as in the fire-saw and firedrill originated in Southern Asia Fire was the most important discovery of Paleolithic man. The birth of the art of cooking:

meant that he could now prepare and "predigest" foodstuffs and augment the diet of fruit, roots, and raw meat drying meat and other foods

Gradually, various ways of preparing food were developed from the original method of simply holding the item to be cooked over the fire or placing it in the fire. Food could be cooked on top of heated stones and even in glowing embers. As soon as suitable containers could be found or fashioned, boiling, stewing, and frying became regular ways of preparing food; and from primitive means of cooking food in preheated vessels, the art of baking evolved. The discovery of Cooking: led to the invention of suitable containers and other kitchen utensils, of braziers (portable fires) for domestic heating, of grates, and finally of bellows applied in metallurgy, pottery, and brewing

Tending the fire required a suitable place in the middle of the hut or caves usually a mud-plastered, walled spot, the hearth. This was the birthplace of pottery, for prehistoric man soon discovered how hard the mud plaster became after being thoroughly heated. Also from the domestic hearth were developed our kilns, ovens, and industrial furnaces of a later period. Present evidence points to a fairly late emergence of the art of pottery. The oldest farming villages of the Near East did not contain pots, but by the time of such early urban settlements as Jericho (6000B.C.), pottery was known. The earliest pottery took the shape of the gourds it was designed to displace, an early example of the tendency of inventors to adopt a natural form in attempting to replace a natural function. The fuel used by prehistoric man were dead branches, dry wood, and shrubs, but so was such lowgrade material as dried bones. In the East, thorny shrubs, withered sticks, twigs, and dried dung were cheap fuels, supplemented by straw and other farming refuse as soon as agriculture was introduced. In later times this wood was made into charcoal for industrial purposes. The discovery of charcoal: responsible for the deforestation of the Mediterranean area in antiquity. Much later, the Greek philosopher Plato (427-347 B.C.) deplored the disappearance of the many forests of Athens due to charcoal-burning and shipbuilding However, prehistoric man seldom used convenient outcroppings of coal and lignite

came into more regular use in Roman Britain, but its use in earlier times is hypothetical was a major deterrent to the development of industrial processes during the whole of antiquity

Clasisical Antiquity (500 B.C.-400 A.D.): Peat and lignite were well-known, although the burning of peat of Low Countries was considered a proof of barbarism and poverty[Tacitus( 55-117 A.D)] Introduction of Illuminating Devices: threading a wick through such oil-rich creatures as the stormy petrel or the candlefish provided a reasonable flame. the oil was first extracted from the animal or fish, and then the fish-oil, tallow, or other type of fat was used in hollowed-out stone lamps, with a wick hanging over the rim or floating in the middle of the oil. in use in Paleolithic times; a specimen was found in the Lascaux caves of France, where it had served the prehistoric painters who decorated the walls there some 12,000 years ago. Sometimes resinous splinters or torches were used pottery or metal bowls were manufactured, multi-wick lamps being made by forming several spouts along the rim of the bowl to hold more wicks. gave more stable lighting than the splinter-lights or rush-lights (peeled rushes often dipped in fat or grease to form a primitive candle), which were apt to give off sparks and thus constituted a grave danger-spot in the house Along the coasts, shells were often used as lamps, for the rim was naturally shaped to hold wicks Even after the advent of the candle, the vast majority of people usually rose and went to bed with the sun, for oil for illuminating purposes was too expensive for people who were merely seeking out a living.

Advances in Stone Tools By 15,000 B.C. more differentiated and better tools were being made in Europe and the Near East. The earlier technique had been to shape a stone tool by beating it against a hammer stone or between a hammer and a stone anvil, but as more suitable stones for tool-making were found, flaking techniques were more widely used Flint, obsidian, or fine-grained lava could be used to produce flakes by applying a stroke with a stone hammer or mallet at certain points of the surface at exactly the right angle.

Sample tools that underwent flaking techniques: Burin hand axes chopping tools, blades, etc. Retouched by secondary flaking and by pressure-flaking (splitting off small flakes along the cutting edge to make it more even) to produce a wide range of special tools for each technical operation such as chopping, cutting, adzing, sawing, scraping, etc Wood: worked by using flint scrapers for chisels to produce dug-out canoes (6500 B.C.) to produce primitive tenon (projection cut at the end of piece of material) mortise (hole cut in second piece to receive projection on first) joints for wooden objects Antlers were used as picks in the mining of flint by that time. Bone or wooden handles held small flint blades; spears and arrows had hafted heads made of various materials. The Beginning of Minings Good flaking stones that could be used for tools and weapons were not too common. Sometimes they were found along the shore where chalk outcroppings had been worn away by the waves and previously embedded nodules of flint had been washed onto the beaches. Flint nodules could also be found inland at several surface locations in Europe and the Near East. The best materials, however, could only be obtained by digging vertical shafts into the limestone to reach the stratum some 30 to 400 feet below the ground which contained flint nodules with better flaking qualities. Many of these Stone Age flint mines have been discovered, and some have even yielded skeletons of miners---with their tools---surprised by the crumbling of their" pipes" or shafts Another early product to be mined, apart from the ochres and other colored earths used as pigments for decoration purposes was salt. The diminishing percentage of foodstuffs with a natural salt content had to be supplemented by the addition of other salt. This was sometimes found as deposits of evaporated saltspray along the coasts, but it was usually obtained by the evaporation of saline waters from such springs as those of the Halle region (Central Europe), or the mining of rock-salt strata, to be found fairly frequently in the deserts of the Near East and the eastern Alps and Carpathians.

Technology and Aspects of Early Society All these products---flint, hard stone for tools, and salt (usually traded in the form of "bricks"), together with the semi-precious stones which the prehistoric tribesmen admired, as well as sea-shells from the

East---constituted the objects of trade over relatively long distances. This developing trade is just one of the signs that society was changing, and with it, technology. Technology: first of all aimed at the support and extension of food supply which is very limited. Early food-gatherers and hunters devised a full range of tools directed toward their foraging, hunting, and fishing; been classified as "crushers," "piercers," and "entanglers." Included were: the spear and spear-thrower, the simple and composite bow (typical of the hunter of herds), the arrowhead and harpoon, the blow-gun, lasso and bolas, and fish hooks and traps,

Environment and available materials can limit the forms and extension of this technology, but they cannot rob man of his ingenuity. Nor did the insecurity of daily subsistence prevent early man from creating and cultivating graphic and plastic arts. This was partly because primitive superstition (itself a form of technology) believed that one would be more successful in hunting and fishing if one could draw pictures of the objects for which one hunted and fished Perhaps also the aesthetic element---the instinct to adorn or beautify---lies deep within man. Aesthetic Ways: Using natural pigments crushed in a mortar with pestle (and mixed with animal fats or water in most cases), primitive man painted with his finger tips, brushes, or dry-point crayons. He engraved tools and weapons on the walls of his caves with incised lines or pecking He also sculpted Rock or mud was modeled in the round or in relief, and he used ivory, antler, and stone as well.

Still, in these early societies there was no specialization or division of labor, and full-time craftsmen were unknown. This holds true even for the larger part of the Neolithic Age, when the gradual development of stock-breeding and agriculture made life safer and more dependable. The Domestication of Animals

Man gradually tamed such animals as roamed about his settlements or camps and which sometimes may have been scavenging. By Magdalenian times (the late period, 17,000-8000 B.C., of the Old Stone Age) the dog was already domesticated, and probably man had already tamed the first reindeer, goats, and sheep. During the Neolithic Age (Late Stone Age) pigs and cattle joined the range of domestic animals, the horse and the onager (wild ass) being tamed toward the end of that period. Neolithic and Bronze Age man tamed such animals intentionally. The oldest Egyptian wall-paintings show that even antelopes and gazelles were domesticated, possibly for economic purposes, as their skins and the leather prepared from them were much prized. Animals were bred because of their meat, hides, or milk and man gradually acquired sufficient biological experience to be able to produce more "specialized" animals, the products of which were refined by various techniques. During the Neolithic Age (c.700 B.C.) we find more and more types of sheep, goats, and cattle bred to suit man's needs. At the same time, the deforestation and cultivation of larger areas of virgin soil began to cause extermination of wild species and to make the domesticated ones more dependent on man's care. The Beginnings of Agriculture Similar needs led to man's attempts to free himself from the limitations of vegetable food supplied by nature in the wild state. He did not want to be dependent on roots and fruit only, but wanted regular supplies of green vegetables, nuts and oil seeds, cereals, and condiments. In most cases it is impossible to determine where or when such cultivated foodstuffs were first discovered and used. In the case of cereals, however, it is fairly certain that they originated from the cultivation and crossbreeding or wild grasses growing in Syria and the highlands to the North, that is, in the Fertile Crescent running from the Egyptian border along the Arabian Desert to the delta of the Euphrates and the Tigris. Fertile Crescent: From 8000 B.C. onwards, played as the center of agriculture, whence the knowledge of growing such improved foodstuffs spread to the Mediterranean region and Western Europe

Although most of the cereal grains developed first in the Near East, Europe gave the world two new cereals, oats and rye, which became important crops in Roman times. Rice did not come west from the Orient until about 1000 B.C. Men also began to cultivate intentionally such plants as flax and hemp and to use their fibers for textiles and rope making; they also grew plants from which they could extract oils and dyestuffs. The advent of agriculture brought more or less permanent settlements and tended to displace the earlier nomadic way of life.

Yet, in these early agricultural settlements there were still few traces of technological specialization; every man had to be a jack-of-all-trades, and every homestead was virtually self-sufficient. Agriculture stimulated technology in various ways. New tools were needed: the hoe, plow, harrow to prepare and till the soil After the birth of agriculture, prehistoric man was faced with the problem of detaching the grains from the dried heads of the wild grasses he cultivated and improved. He solved this problem by beating sheaves of grain against the compacted mud floor or by spreading it out on the floor and beating it with sticks. Sometimes he had the animals which he had domesticated tread on the grain; sometimes he used the crushing effect of a threshing sledge, studded with flint or iron nails, on the grain spread out over the threshing floor. Much later, even the Romans, with their large farms aiming at mass production of wheat and other cereals, did not possess the flail. It was not until the fourth century in Gaul that the ingenious combination of two hinged sticks produced the flail; yet the technical elements and the need for an effective threshing device had already existed for millennia. Building The coming of permanent settlements led to early forms of building. The earliest European houses were tent-like constructions, often little more than roofed-over pits and hollows. Gradually, pole or frame constructions were developed, which led to more solid constructions made of planks, turf, mud, and adobe. The advent of metal tools in the Bronze Age made possible the building of log houses in the forest regions; while in the south the types of houses with a roofed front porch and a room with a central fireplace prevailed Long houses and religious buildings of various forms were also erected, involving a more developed wood-work technology. In the Near East the earliest farming villages consisted of sapling-supported mud huts, later with wattle (woven branches or twigs) wall smeared with daub (mud). Building construction depended on the local materials available. Reed huts were constructed in the lower river valleys, wooden houses where timber was available. I n Jarmo by 6500 B.C. compacted mud-walls were used and at Jericho we find mud-bricks. The Urban Revolution Technological developments during the Neolithic Age gradually led to a regular production of surplus foodstuffs, which supported what has been called the "Urban Revolution."

In the Near East after 600 B.C. some farming villages slowly developed into urban centers dominating an agricultural area. Trade was no longer in luxuries alone; the farmers brought their surplus grain and food to the city, where skilled, fulltime craftsmen traded the articles which they had produced for the food they needed. This was particularly true after the urban centers began to move toward the river valleys, which were being drained and cultivated but which could not provide the timber, metals, and minerals needed by the craftsmen. Transport Despite an increase in trade, transport was still very primitive. On the water, apart from rafts and inflated skins carrying a timber deck (the keleks of Mesopotamia), there were baskets with a high rim and the coracle (Arabic, quffa), a sort of raft made water-tight by a hide covering (in Assyria, by a coat of bituminous mastic). Ships made of bundles of reeds were typical for the Nile Valley civilization. The inhabitants of Mesopotamia, like those of prehistoric Europe, also used the dug-out canoe, the prototype of later plank-built ships Somehow they learned to avail themselves of the propulsive power of the wind, and their little wooden ships circled Arabia and penetrated the Red Sea, where rock pictures show them to have had square sails. Such ships later inspired the Phoenician ship-builders and became the prototype of the Aegean galley Despite these early adventurers, most early shipping was merely river transport and seldom risked the dangers even of sailing along the coasts of the open seas. The technological improvements of land transport were even slower. limited to what men or pack animals could carry on their backs From 7000 B.C. onward, sledges were in use for heavy loads such as the stones used for later prehistoric (Neolithic, the Late Stone Age, period monuments. The great megalithic monument at Stonehenge, in England, shows the great feats of land and water transport possible even with the most primitive means its four-ton stones were carried over land and sea from quarries 150 miles away, its thirty-ton stones were carried some 25 miles by sledge. For a long time archaeologists have reasoned that such heavy stones must have been moved on sledges placed on rollers and that the idea of the wheel probably derived from these rollers. On early tablets found at Uruk in Mesopotamia (3500 B.C.) there are pictures of sledges on four wheels; a set of solid wheels with their axle were carved from a tree trunk, and the sledge was attached to two such units. True wheeled vehicles, with the wheel rotating about the axle instead of being solidly affixed to it, are not found until the days of the Sumerian royal tombs (after 3000 B.C.) Man At The Dawn of History

 Starting as one of the members of the primate group, man possessed certain biological prerequisites for technical progress: the capacity to manipulate with his hands and fingers, the ability to develop speech for communication, and, somehow, a capacity for abstract thought. These had enabled him to develop tools, which in turn enabled him to evolve further Although early man undoubtedly first utilized wooden and bone implements, only his stone tools have survived the ravages of time, so human prehistory is divided among the Stone Ages (Eolithic, Paleolithic, and Neolithic), with these tools improving in quality and usability over a long period of time. Man had already discovered fire and had crude weapons The beginnings of agriculture allowed for settled communities and man changed from a nomadic hunter and parasite upon nature to become an active partner with nature He domesticated animals and developed agricultural tools. He made textiles and produced pottery. He invented the wheel and the sail to improve his transportation. And, at the turn of the millennium, he learned how to use and produce copper. The most astonishing invention of pre-histor: The development of writing in 3500 B.C. The earliest documents were cuneiform clay tablets, forming the archives of the administration of early Mesopotamian (Sumerian) temples. typical of the way in which language and its earliest written expression, pictographs (that is, ideas expressed in the form of visual pictures), developed. The "naming" of all natural things and phenomena are arranged in groups which are supposed to be related in some way. The Sumerian language of the ancient Mesopotamians being agglutinative led to the "discovery" of the "natural order of things"; they also aided budding scientists and craftsmen, in teaching pupils how to read and write. Used to set down their experience and to formulate the recipes and instruction for technology, new terms being formed and read with ease as necessity decidated. Cuneiform writing: consisted of wedge-shaped marks incised on wet clay, a material in which the Tigris-Euphrates Valley abounded When dried in the sun or baked in a fire, the clay tablets hardened, and a permanent record was left. Nile Valley also witnessed the beginnings of writing by brush dipped in ink or dye on papyrus formed by pressing and drying pithy reeds growing near the Nile delta. Contemporaneous with the invention of writing was to be the beginning of metallurgy and the accompanying change from the Stone Ages of man to the Copper Age and the Bronze Age in the third millennium B.C.

With the beginnings of metallurgy, the Stone Age of man comes to an end; with the beginnings of writing, prehistory comes to an end; with the beginnings of agriculture, man's parasitism on nature gives way to co-operation with nature. Technology thus made possible the beginnings of civilization in the great river valleys of the Near East, in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY IN ANCIENT TIMES

Submitted by:

Submitted to: Prof. Ebonia B. Seraspe