STS

• Areas of concern in ancient times

  • Transportation and navigation
  • Communication and record-keeping
  • Mass production
  • Security and protection
  • Health
  • Aesthetics
  • Architecture
• Transportation


  • People were trying to go places and discover new horizons
  • Traveled to search for food and find better locations for settlements
  • Traveled to trade surplus goods
• Navigation


  • Assisted in journeys to unfamiliar and strange areas
  • Allowed them to return home after discovering new places or completing trade
• Communication


  • Needed to communicate with natives to facilitate trade and prevent conflicts
• Record-keeping


  • Needed to remember places they had been and document trades
  • Vital to keep records of history and culture to establish identities
• Mass production


  • Increased demand for food and other necessities
  • Needed technology to increase food supplies and survival needs without more travel or work
• Security and protection


  • Weapons and armors were important for discovery of new places and establishment of alliances
  • Conflicts were common as different groups struggled to control vital resources
• Health


  • Faced challenge of conserving life due to illnesses and diseases
  • Science and technology played major role in discovery of cures and prevention
• Engineering


  • Allowed integration of needs for better transportation, protection, and infrastructure
• Architecture


  • Elaborate designs were signs of technological advancement of civilizations
  • Established identity of nations
• Aesthetics


  • Developed technology to improve physical appearance
• Developments in science and technology were results of many prior antecedents
• Out of necessity, people in ancient times discovered and invented things that impacted modern lives
• Sumerians


  Known for high degree of cooperation and desire for great things
• Cuneiform


  First writing system developed by Sumerians, using word pictures and triangular symbols carved on clay

  
• Uruk City


  • First true city in the world
  • Built using only mud/clay and reeds, no building stones or lumber
• Great Ziggurat of Ur


  • Sacred place for chief god, built using sun-baked bricks without much building materials
• Irrigation and dikes


  • Sumerians' solution to water scarcity and flooding issues, enabling year-long farming and increased food production
• Sailboats


  • Sumerians' invention to address increasing transportation and trading needs
• Wheel


  • First used for farm work and food processes, enabled mass production
• Plow


  • Enabled faster and larger-scale cultivation of land, enabling mass food production
• Roads


  • Facilitated faster and more organized travel, made of sun-baked bricks and bitumen
• Hanging Gardens of Babylon


  • One of the seven wonders of the ancient world, a structure of layered gardens with various plants and trees
• No physical evidence has been found to prove the existence of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• Papyrus


  • Egyptian invention of paper-like material, lighter and less fragile than clay tablets, enabled easier record-keeping and communication

  
• Ink


  • Egyptians invented inks of different colors by combining soot with chemicals
• Papyrus


  Thin sheets on which one could write, lighter and thinner than clay tablets, less breakable
• Papyrus was a major accomplishment in Egyptian record-keeping and communications

  
• Papyrus allowed people to send letters or correspondences anywhere in the world since the pieces of paper were very light that they could be carried and delivered by birds
• Papyrus made record-keeping easier since documents would not take huge storage spaces, and they could be kept away from raiders who often destroyed records
• Ink


  Egyptians invented ink by combining soot with different chemicals to produce inks of different colors
• The ink must withstand the elements of nature since it was used to record history, culture, and codified laws, and must also be tamper-proof
• Hieroglyphics


  Egyptian writing system using symbols, adapted from the early writing system established in Mesopotamia

  
• Egyptians believed that the hieroglyphic writing system was provided to them by their gods
• Cosmetics


  In ancient Egypt, cosmetics were used for both health and aesthetic reasons, and were believed to protect from evil and signify holiness
• Kohl


  Egyptians wore Kohl around the eyes to prevent and even cure eye diseases, created by mixing soot or malachite with mineral galena
• Wig


  Worn by wealthy Egyptians to protect their shaved heads from the sun, allowed heat to escape and prevented head lice
• Water clock/Clepsydra


  Device that utilizes gravity to measure time by the amount of water flowing from one vessel to another
• The water clock was widely used as a timekeeping device during ancient times
• Alarm clock


  Ancient Greek device that used water or small stones/sand dropping into drums to sound an alarm, used by Plato to signal the start of his lectures