Growth of Human Progress Near or Before 1500 BC - Research Paper Example

Growth of Human Progress Near or Before 1500 BC as a Function of Technological Advancement Choosing which technological advancements to focus on is not an easy task as such a broad time period necessarily lends one to choose between several key and important technological advancements which paved the way for future progress and development of the human race. However, for purposes of this brief paper, this particular author will spend the proceeding analysis considering the importance of the following technologies on the fate of mankind’s advancement: introduction of writing systems, the plough, the wheel, plumbing, and iron smelting. Of course these are not an exhaustive list but only a few of the highlights as this author sees it of some of the major events that shaped further human progress on or before the year 1500 BC. As such, each of these advancements will be considered from the standpoint of how each respective technological breakthrough served as a major turning point in human development as well as briefly relating the background behind how these technological advancements came to light. The first breakthrough that this author has chosen to consider is the introduction of writing systems. Naturally, there may be more important technological introductions before 3500 BC; however, for purposes of the historian, it is difficult to underestimate the importance of this breakthrough in terms of seeking to interact with and understand the nuances of how different cultures deep within the past lived, worked, worshipped, warred, and believed. On or around the years 3400-3200, the first writing systems began to be developed by the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Cretans. Scholars continue to debate concerning the nature of the development of these three geographically proximal writing systems. Some strongly believe they developed independently of one another due to their styles and linguistic content; however, others believe that the effects of cultural diffusion had a strong impact on how each of these respective styles developed in such a geographically related region in and around the very same time period. Regardless of the level of cultural exchange and borrowing of ideas that occurred, it is without question that the written language is one of the foundations of a civilized world. Without such a system, advanced philosophy, mathematics, religious belief systems, architectural design, and science are difficult if not impossible to completely transmit to the next generation of thinkers, theologians, scholars, and designers. In this way, the development of the earliest writing systems cannot and should not merely be considered as a way for leadership to decorate their palaces and tombs but as a way to effectively provide a solid link with the past to engage with the next generation and provide cautionary tales of what has been learned and what should be developed further (Kaniewski et al 2011). In this way, this first technological advancement is perhaps the most important of all because it allowed the proceeding advancements to take from the past, borrow from the lessons that have been learned, and actively seek out new fields of study. Although not everyone could read or write (in fact few could), this first step was an integrally important one in reshaping the world up until this point. With the development of society came the need to feed a larger and larger population. As such, the development and implementation of the plough was another extraordinarily important breakthrough which allowed society to develop further. As the situation before had required nearly every man woman and child to be involved in hunting and gathering in order to maintain a level of subsistence, the introduction of the plough greatly improved overall efficiency and allowed one man and a horse/ox/mule/water buffalo to perform the work of several workers. Although this may sound mundane, consider the fact that the extra workforce that had now been freed could now pursue other endeavors to include development of further technological advancement, metallurgy, architecture, governance, development of the law, religion etc. Accordingly, the development of the plough allowed a vastly increased amount of labor to no longer be concentric upon providing for the daily demands that the previously harsh survival-type lifestyle had demanded. As one or two men and their beasts of labor could perform the work of 5 or 10 men previously, this worked to differentiate society in a way that helped it to further achieve consecutively higher levels of technological advancement. As with any of the earliest advancements, the ones which made it possible for individuals to expand their overall body of knowledge and pursue other fields of work and leisure. Although the cliché of necessity being the mother of invention is neither a scientific nor historical justification, it bears note that around the very same time that the first ploughs were developed, the first wheel also came into existence in or around Sumeria during 3000 BC. The introduction of the wheel only served to compound the previous labor effects that have been mentioned in the discussion concerning the plough. As people were now able to load tons of grains/wheat and/or cereals onto carts pulled by animals, the need to employ hundreds of people to physically carry goods or load them onto individual beasts of burden to be carried in this manner was no longer needed (Schulz 2008). In this way, the growth of society was exponentially advanced due to the fact that the compound inventions of the plough and the wheel meant that the overall labor force which had been necessary to engage in preparation, planting, and harvesting could now be reduced by a very large percentage. Yet this discussion of the importance of the wheel transcends a simple discussion of farming and agriculture as the wheel effectively revolutionized and defined transportation and military science up until our current era. Whereas foot soldiers and cavalry had dominated combat previously, heavy artillery and archers alike sought to employ the use of the wheel in rapidly moving chariots that helped to forever change the face of the way that armies interacted with one another on the field of combat. The rapid movement of the chariots combined with the prevision skills of their occupants meant that an early form of blitzkrieg was developed whereby mobile units could rapidly appear, attack, and dissipate as well as confuse, harass, and disorient an enemy. Similarly, the invention of plumbing in or around 2700 BC meant that larger and larger population centers could develop without the need to spread out over a greater and greater distance to maintain some form of sanitation. This development is the only one which will be discussed in this brief analysis which has to do with the overall health and wellness of the general population of the times. As such, it is important to note that the prior advancements that have so far been enumerated have all worked to allow a more complex and interdependent society to emerge among the human race. As such, this has meant that more and more people will have likely come to be interdependent on one another for shelter, food, security and the main necessitates of life. However, this had a compound problem due to the fact that these societies that began to develop required an increasing need for sanitation due to the fact that more and more people were living in such close proximity to one another. In this way, the development of plumbing helped to avert many issues surrounding the likely spread of sickness and disease that is oftentimes indicative of cultures that have not yet developed a form of plumbing and sanitation yet still live in communal and organized societies (Gordon 2000). Lastly, iron smelting provided the means by which such organized societies could craft and manipulate raw material to serve the needs of the implements, tools, decorations and toys they required. Prior to the invention of iron smelting in 2000 BC, humanity had relied on very natural forms of unprocessed raw material to fabricate the tools that they required for everyday life. This meant that a high reliance on wood, shale, flint, bone and other materials was necessitated. As one is fully aware, all of these implements that have been listed are prone to wearing out in a relatively rapid manner. The introduction of iron smelting meant that the tools which the society employed could last a much longer time; again freeing up key segments of the labor pool in order to produce other items and develop other technologies. Additionally, the introduction of iron smelting had a profound effect on military industry and development as well (Bangwei 2012). Due to the fact that cavalry units could not be equipped with horse shoes, archers could tip their arrows with iron bolts, and spearmen could employ iron heads on their weapons as well as the development of iron swords meant that armies could fight in a technologically advanced and more efficient manner. None of these advancements should be categorized as more important than another due to the fact that it is discernible and verifiable that each and every one of these has been born as the result of the compound effect that prior technological advancements have made possible. Although the preceding is not in any way an exhaustive list of the technologies that helped to define and differentiate the ancient world from today, each of these has had profound and long lasting effects on the ways in which society has developed. In many cases, the effects of these advancements remain with us until the current time; little changed in nature and ideology. References Bangwei, Z. (2012). ON TYPICAL MATERIALS ACTING AS THE DIVIDING STANDARD OF THE DEVELOPMENT STAGES OF HUMAN SUBSTANCE CIVILIZATION. Interdisciplinary Description Of Complex Systems, 10(2), 114-126. Gordon, R. J. (2000). Does the "New Economy" Measure up to the Great Inventions of the Past?. Journal Of Economic Perspectives, 14(4), 49-74. Kaniewski, D., Van Campo, E., Van Lerberghe, K., Boiy, T., Vansteenhuyse, K., Jans, G., & ... Bretschneider, J. (2011). The Sea Peoples, from Cuneiform Tablets to Carbon Dating. Plos ONE, 6(6), 1-7. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020232 Scholtz, G. (2008). Scrab beetles at the interface of wheel invention in nature and culture?. Contributions To Zoology, 77(3), 139-148. Read More