Historical Antecedents

• Three-age system

  • Stone Age (3.4 MYA – 3300 BC)
  • Bronze Age (3300 BC – 1200 BC)
  • Iron Age (1200 to 500 BC)
• Stone Age

  • Marked by the invention and use of stone tools by early human ancestors and the transformation from hunting/gathering to farming and food production
  • Limited written accounts, only cave drawings and unearthed artifacts available for study
• Stone tools recovered

  • Daggers and spears points used for hunting
  • Stone Choppers and hand axes used for cutting meat
  • Stone Scrapers used for cleaning animal hides
• Periods of the Stone Age

  • Paleolithic Period (Old Stone)
  • Mesolithic Period (Middle Stone)
  • Neolithic Period (New Stone)
• Paleolithic Period


  • Longest phase of human history
  • Humans were food gatherers/hunters (consumers)
  • They are nomads with no permanent shelter
• Notable tools and discoveries of the Paleolithic Period

  • Venus (carving of a voluptuous woman out of ivory or stone)
  • Sewing (invention of the needle for sewing)
  • Pit houses (temporary shelters)
  • Pottery and baskets (for gathering and storing various liquids and dry goods)
• Mesolithic Period


  • Marked the end of the last Ice Age
  • Resulted in the extinction of many large mammals, rising sea levels and climate change that eventually caused man to migrate
  • People lived in camps near bodies of water (half consumers, half producers)
• Notable tools and discoveries of the Mesolithic Period

  • Microliths (small stone tools that are more polished and sometimes crafted with points and attached to antlers, bone, or wood to serve as spears and arrows)
  • Agriculture (led to more permanent settlements in the village)
• Neolithic Period


  • Ancient humans switched from hunter/gatherer mode to agriculture and food production (producers)
  • Able to build permanent shelters
  • Domesticated animals and cultivated cereal grains
• Notable tools and discoveries of the Neolithic Period

  • Fire (allows them for different uses)
  • Tools (polished hand axes for plowing and tilling the land)
  • Art (pottery, sewing, and weaving using the loom)
• Bronze Age

  Advances in metallurgy to metal working were made, as bronze, a copper (88%) and a tin alloy (12%), was discovered. Metals are obtained from ores (a naturally occurring solid material from which a metal or valuable mineral can be extracted) through smelting.
• Smelting


  A process of extracting metal from or involving heating and melting
• Bronze tools recovered

  • Ox-drawn bronze plow
  • Wheel
  • Irrigation
  • Field system
• Soap

  • The first ever soap in human history was invented during the Bronze Age.
  • An equation for soap was found on the Babylonian earth tablet dated 2800 B.C.
  • The three main ingredients of soap at that time were cassia oil, water, and soluble base known as Alkali.
• Iron tools recovered

  • Smelting Iron
  • Smelting Pits
  • Gold and Silver Weights
  • First Coin
• Middle Ages (Medieval Period)


  The period that started with the fall of the Roman Empire and lasted for 1,000 years until 1450.
• Middle Ages advancements in Europe

  • Life in Europe was very hard
  • Very few people could read and write, leading to superstitious beliefs
  • The people thought that fate ruled their existence, with little hope for improvement
  • During the Roman Empire, the poor were protected by the emperor's soldiers
  • Once the empire fell, the beginnings of feudalism emerged
  • Peasants were workers of the empire
  • Despite the constant fear and death, there were great leaps forward in science and invention
• Notable Middle Ages innovations in Europe

  • Horse collar
  • Watermill
  • Magnetic compass
  • Clock
  • Wool
  • Cotton
  • Silk
  • The Great or Jersey wheel
• Notable Middle Ages innovations in China

  • Seismoscope
  • Chinese paper making
  • Magnetic compass
  • Cannon
  • Gun powder
  • Acupuncture
  • First movable type printing
  • Wheelbarrow
• Notable Middle Ages innovations in India

  • 12-month division
  • Metallurgy
  • Ayurvedic medicine
  • Square root and linear equation
• Early civilizations in Pre-Columbian America

  • Maya (ancient natives of Central America)
  • Aztec (pre-Columbian Indians of Mexico)
  • Inca (pre-Columbian of Peru)
• Maya (ancient natives of Central America)


  • Excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making, and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork.
  • They made pyramids made of limestone as a display of their architectural prowess.
  • Used cocoa beans a monetary unit.
  • Invented Mayan solar calendar that sparked intrigue and even fear some 8 years ago (2012).
• Aztec (pre-Columbian Indians of Mexico)

  • Recorded astronomical observations in stone sculptures.
  • Practiced farming by slash and burn, a process of clearing forested lands by cutting trees and plants and burning the remaining vegetation to create a land for agriculture.
  • Practiced human sacrifice, using razor-sharp blades to slice open the chests of sacrificial humans and offer their still-beating hearts to their gods.
• Inca (pre-Columbian of Peru)


  • Utilized more advanced farming method which was terraces farming.
  • Built irrigation canals to provide access to stream water along with retaining walls.
  • Clothes are made by removal animals' fluffy wool from llamas and alpacas.
  • Discovered a primitive form of brain surgery to save lives of their injured men by reducing inflammation caused by serious head injuries and incorporated basic anesthetics such as coca, tobacco, and alcohol to reduce discomfort.
• Information Age

  • Began around the 1970s and is still on going on today.
  • Also known as the computer age, digital age, or new media age.
  • People could access information and knowledge easily, which brought changes in society from traditionally industrialized to one reliant on information computerization.
• Scientific Revolution


  • The period of drastic change in scientific thought that took place during the 16th and 17th centuries.
  • It replaced the Greek view of nature that had dominated science for almost 2,000 years ago.
  • It is characterized by an emphasis on abstract reasoning, quantitative thought, an understanding of how nature works, the view of nature as a machine, and the development of an experimental scientific method.
• 3 C's of a scientist

  Creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking, when merged are the characteristics of a scientist influencing the ideas, discoveries, and technologies developed and produced.
• Intellectuals and their revolutionary ideas

  • Nicolaus Copernicus - Proposed that the planets revolved around the sun
  • Johannes Kepler - Laws on Planetary Motion
  • Isaac Newton - Law of Motion, Law of Gravitational Motion, Reflecting Telescope
  • Charles Darwin - Theory of Evolution, Contributions to Entomology
  • Sigmund Freud - Theory of Personality
• Industrial Revolution


  • The period of development in the latter period of the 18th century that transformed largely rural, agrarian societies in Europe and America into industrialized, urban ones.
  • Manufacture of goods were moved from small shops and homes to large factories, which brought about changes in culture as people moved from rural areas to big cities to work.
  • This revolution started in Great Britain.
• Gutenberg Revolution


  • Johannes Gutenberg, the first European to successfully use a movable type printing, which started a new era as it revolutionized communication and knowledge altogether.
  • Books that are printed using the said printer are then called as "incunabula".
  • The very first book to be printed in the M.T.P. was Gutenberg's bible, which taught people the discipline of literacy. The existence of the movable type printer paved the way for literature as a whole.
• Post-Gutenberg Revolution


  Use of internet, computers, and other ITs such as the World Wide Web (www), which made the passing of information easier compared to previous ones.
• Three Age System

  • formed by Sir Christian Jurgensen Thomsen to highlight three different ages that occurred in our history.
  • A system of classifying ancient ages based on tools’ development stages.
• Venus

  Historians infer that this is an ancient representation of beauty while for some, a penchant for fertility.
• Bronze Age


  • Organized government, law, and warfare, as well as the beginnings of religion, also came into play during the Bronze Age. Ancient Egyptians built their pyramids to honor their dead pharaohs.
  • The earliest written accounts, including Egyptian hieroglyphs and petroglyphs (rock engravings), are also dated to this age. It was marked by the rise of states or kingdoms-large-scale societies joined under a central government by a powerful ruler.
• Iron Age

  • People across much of Europe, Asia, and parts of Africa began making tools and weapons from iron and steel.
  • Iron was first smelted from ore in theSouth Caucasus (a region presently occupied by Armenia, Gregoria, And Azerbaijan).
• Horse collar


  Pulls on horse’s shoulders to enable it to plough and carry wagons
• Watermill


  Rotates and generate electricity from that movement
• Magnetic compass

  Provides direction to European mariners/conquistadors
• Clock


  Tells time, formed with the development of the verge escapement
• Wool, cotton, silk


  Most common materials during the first industrialization of cloth making, used to be woven by hand or on a loom