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CE Reporting Part1

Engineering began with early humans using simple tools like wood and stone to help with tasks like hunting and construction. As civilizations developed in places like Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and India, engineering advanced with new agricultural techniques, structures like ziggurats and pyramids, irrigation systems, and early forms of transportation and manufacturing. Engineering continued to progress during ancient times with advances made by cultures like the Greeks, Romans, and others. In the medieval period, engineering innovations included architectural feats like the Hagia Sophia, technological developments in places like China with the magnetic compass and porcelain, as well as recognition of engineering's importance across societies.

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62 views

CE Reporting Part1

Engineering began with early humans using simple tools like wood and stone to help with tasks like hunting and construction. As civilizations developed in places like Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and India, engineering advanced with new agricultural techniques, structures like ziggurats and pyramids, irrigation systems, and early forms of transportation and manufacturing. Engineering continued to progress during ancient times with advances made by cultures like the Greeks, Romans, and others. In the medieval period, engineering innovations included architectural feats like the Hagia Sophia, technological developments in places like China with the magnetic compass and porcelain, as well as recognition of engineering's importance across societies.

Uploaded by

2ne1 Blackjack
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Engineering in the Ancient and

Medieval Times
August 29, 2019
Prehistoric (1,000,000 BP – 10,000 BP)

BP => Before Present


“Present” means 1950 AD
• Evidences from works of archaeologists and
anthropologists which suggest prehistoric
makings of useful objects by humans, for
therein one can recognize the primal stirrings
of engineering
Early Humans

Lucy
3.2 million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis
~600cm³ brain volume
(~1600cm³ in modern humans)
Early Humans

Peking Man
Stone tools and fire
Early Humans

Neanderthal Man
chipped stones
Early Humans

Cro-Magnon Man
wall paintings in ancient caves
Invention of Tools
• Humans are profoundly endowed with the
instinct to examine, to invent, to make, and to
use devices.

Materials -> Inventiveness -> Devices


Invention of Tools

Wood -> Chewed point -> Wood tool

Natural stone -> Slanted blow -> Stone tool


Prehistoric Engineering

• With stone available in nature N(t) by simple


collection and then by process of percussion,
the engineers of the day E(t) created ingenious
devices D(t).

N(t) -> E(t) -> D(t)


profound discovery of making devices
Ancient Times (8000 BCE – 500 CE)
• Mesopotamia – Sumerian Ziggurat
– Primitive Agricultural – Egyptian Pyramids
Engineering – English Stonehenge
– Agricultural Revolution • Trade and Conflict
• Sumerians – Ancient Government
– 4500 BCE: Irrigation Canals Practices
– 3500 BCE: City-states • Minoan to Roman Times
– Wheel and axle – Pillar
– Cuneiform Script – Roman Engineers
• Settlements and • Tool/Device Development
Civilizations – Material-use Evolution
– Egypt – Device-use Fitness
– Indus River Valley • Ancient Engineering
– Societal Interest in Devices
Mesopotamia (The land between Two
Rivers)
Primitive Agricultural Engineering
• Riverine Civilization
• Herding – Dogs, Sheep, Goats, Cattles
• Soil Tilling – Wild Barley (Food Staple), Wheat
Mesopotamia (The land between Two Rivers)

Agricultural Revolution
• Major Change in Human Practices
• Scratch Plow
• Sickles
Agricultural Revolution
Earthenware Metallicware

Straw + Moist Clay + Sun Drying = Adobe Shiny Beads or Chips (creek and river
Bricks beds)

Sand + Limestone = Mortar Personal Embellishment and Community


Mortar + Water = Wall Plaster/Brick Rituals
Bonding Agent
Sumerians
• Lower Regions of Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
• Pottery (kiln) and Weaving
• First to create large ceremonial structures
• First to improve agrarian productivity, stone and
bricked lined irrigation canals
• First evidence of City-States
• Wheel and Axle
• Cuneiform Script (Clay Tablets)
• Time reference: 29 days
Settlements and Civilizations
• Nile River – Egyptian Civilization
– Pyramids, Qanats, Tall stone columns with hieroglyphics
– Human Labor
– Shadow Sticks (crude sundials)
– Calendrics (12 periods of 30 days each with 5 added mythical days)
• Indus River Valley – Present India and Pakistan
– Grid Pattern (centrally located citadel)
– Remained isolated
• Yellow River Valley – China
– Ink, lodestone magnet, paper, porcelain, gunpowder
Structure and Symbols
• Structure Ziggurat
• Egyptian Pyramids
• English Stonehenge
• Qanat/Furrows
• Shadoof (Egyptian)
• Hieroglyphics
Trade and Conflict
• Began between Sumer and Egypt
Sumerians Egyptians
Close to northern Forests and Wheat, have little wood,
Mountains Papyrus (writing and painting)
Skilled in Metallicware Bronze tools and Surveying
tools
Have means of record keeping Sail and Boat constructions

• Gold as currency
• Akkadians (bows) vs Sumerians (Lance)
• Hykos (two-person chariots) vs Egypt (spears and clubs)
• Egyptian eventually learned chariots
Minoan to Roman Times
Minoan culture emerged on the island of Crete
• Building of roads, housing, and protective city perimeters
• Construction of larger triangular-sail and square-sail ships
• Extension of sea ports and harbor facilities
• Provisions for road access and port storage
Greek Civilization (small loosely related city-states)
• Iron Age replaced Bronze Age
• Greek Navy (single-sail, multi-tiered rowers, and a fore ram)
• Temples, Open-air theatres, marble and bronze sculptures,
public squares, court yards, impressive housing communities
Minoan to Roman Times
Structures, Inventions, • Archimedes’ Screw
Projects • Over 100,000 km of all-
• Pillar and Lintel weather roads linking 4,000
towns and cities
• Roman Archs and
viaduct/aqueduct • Water Wheels
Tool/Device Development
Handheld Tools -> First of the ingenious devices
made

D’ (t) -> Devices for direct use or prototypes for


further improvement
Tool/Device Development

 Material-Use Evolution

 Device-Use Fitness
Material-Use Evolution
Tool making -> stone, wood, bone, sinew, and
other animal and vegetable materials

Stone Age Bronze Age Iron Age Steel Age


10⁶BP – 3500 BCE 3500 BCE– 1500 BCE 1500 BCE– 1860 CE 1860 CE
Device-Use Fitness
Tool making involves successive changes
towards greater utility and specialization.
Chopping cuttings craping pounding spearing
etc.
Development of
Human Needs Intuition
Devices

Development of device is associated with


human evolution.
Ancient Engineering

N(t) -> E(t) -> D(t) -> S(t)

Set of relevant societal interests in and


preference for devices
Ancient Engineering
Societal Interest

Political – authority, governance, policy, etc.

Economic – trade, labor, finance, etc.

Religious – faith, morality, beliefs, etc.


Ancient to Medieval
Medieval Times (500 CE – 1400)
• Byzantium
• China
• Islam
• India
Byzantium

HAGIA SOPHIA
Islam

MOSQUE
India

MAHABODHI TEMPLE
China

Silk Maker
Magnetic Compass

Ancient Porcelain
Medieval Engineering

Recognition of special skills of artisans and


crafters
Recognition of the expanded importance of
ingenious devices
Recognition that both the engineers and their
devices seemed to contribute to the idea of
improving living conditions
Evolutions of Engineering

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