LESSON 2: Science and

Technology
Studying ancient history allows us Across
-Homo Erectus comprised those 100,000- to
understand where we have come from and why 500,000-year-old stone discovered from various
we are here, and how technology evolved African, Asian, European sites.
through time.
Middle Paleolithic
The birth of technology begun even
before in the ancient time. There are Three-Age -Netherland Man, early human ancestor who
System that was introduce in the early 19th existed 40,000 to 100,000 years ago.
century by Christian Jurgensen Thomsen, an
Archeologist and a Curator of the National -Known as cavemen who used fire, stone tools
Museum, Denmark, Copenhagen through this and flake types for hunting.
book entitled Ledetraad til Nordisk -Use bones as needles in sewing body coverings
Oldkyndighed (Guide to Scandinavian made from animal fur and skins.
Antiquity). The system was originally
formulated to classify artifacts in the possession Upper Paleolithic
of the museum based on the materials to which
-Homo sapiens (Cro- Magnon man and
they were made of. The three prehistoric period
Grimaldi Man)
was born.
-Period of communal hunting, extensive fishing,
The supernatural beliefs, cloth sewing, sculpture,
painting and making personal ornaments.
(2.5 mya – 3000BC) – The period of -There was a first manmade dwellings called pit
weapons made by stone, wood, bones and other house.
similar materials. It was divided into two by
Mesolithic Period (Middle Stone) Period
John Lubbock, Paleolithic and Neolithic period.
Occurred during end of Paleolithic and
Paleolithic (Old Stone) Period
beginning of Neolithic period. There was a
It is known to be the longest time in gradual change in human lives attributed by the
human history which began approximately two retreat of glaciers and growth of forest and
million years ago and ended between 40,000 to deserts. People begun to learn fishing along
10,000 years ago. Humans were believed to be rivers and shores, make pottery and use bow.
an ape-like creature to a true homo sapiens. Gradual transition from gathering agricultural
They were hunter-gatherers who used stone- food to food production.
made tools, flints or bones to hunt animals and
Neolithic (New Stone) Period
harvest wild plants as source of food. They were
usually nomadic or semi- nomadic with no The stage of cultural and technological
permanent settlement. During this period, early development based from agriculture which was
human development was categorized into three characterized by domestic plant such as rice,
divisions: Lower, Middle and Upper Paleolithic corn, beans and also wild animals such as goats,
periods. cattles, sheeps and pigs. They use stone tools
and pottery. Weaving and settled in villages.
Lower Paleolithic
Agriculture continues to expand across most of
-Development of simple tools the inhabited regions giving way to urban
civilization. End of this period is the beginning
-Australopithecus, earliest ancestors from of the age of metal tools.(300BC – 1200BC). It
Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania was stared when tools and weapons were
already widely made with copper and bronze European cathedrals were built in the
through the metal extraction from ore, the Romanesque style. Church builders began to
process is called smelting (which was embrace a new architectural style, known as the
discovered by Sumerians of Mesopotamia), then Gothic (a technology developed in the Islamic
pouring it into a mold for shaping. Bronze could world).
be done by blending copper and tin.
Technological knowledge slowly moved from Between 1347 and 1350, a mysterious
place to place which was began from Southwest disease known as the " Black
Asia to the different parts of the world. It took Death " (the bubonic plague) killed some
thousands of years before it covered the entire 20 million people in Europe—30 percent of the
mainland od Eurasia (Poroszlai, 1999). continent’s population. It was especially deadly
in cities, where it was impossible to prevent the
transmission of the disease from one person to
another. The plague started in Europe in
October 1347, when 12 ships from the Black
(1500BC – 450AD). This began with the Sea docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. Most
smelting pits with advance quality to produce sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those
higher temperature that could smelt iron ore who were alive were covered in black boils that
(Reardon, 2011). Iron age slowly spread into oozed blood and pus. Symptoms of the Black
different parts of the world from North America Death included fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea,
to Saharan Africa where diffusion of bronze terrible aches and pains – and then death.
technology was halted by the Sahara desert. Victims could go to bed feeling healthy and be
People Dwells in agriculture. dead by morning. The plague killed cows, pigs,
goats, chickens and even sheep, leading to a

The
wool shortage in Europe.
Based from the study, today’s scientists
(450 – 1450AD). A long period of believed that the plague was caused by a
history in Europe. It is the time of castles and bacillus called Yersina pestis, which travels
peasants, guilds and monasteries, cathedrals and through the air and can also be contracted
crusades. It was divided in two smaller ages, through the bite of an infected flea or rat, both
Dark Age(450-1000AD) was no significant of which were common in the Middle Ages,
science accomplishments, no great arts especially on ships.
produced and no great leaders born. High Black Death Plague is one of the
Middle Age (1000 – 1450AD). The rise of deadliest diseases in history. This disease killed
Islam. Inventors devised technologies like the over thousands of people during the middle age.
pinhole camera, soap, windmills, surgical One of the best and effective techniques that the
instruments, an early flying machine and the people did during those time to prevent and
system of numerals that we use today. lessen the spreading of disease is the quarantine
Toward the end of the 11th century, the technique.
Catholic Church began to authorize military
expeditions called it as crusades began in 1905
to expel Muslim “infidels” from the Holy Land.
No one “won” the Crusades; in fact, many
thousands of people from both sides lost their
lives. Between the 10th and 13th centuries, most