The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World.THE SEVENTY GREAT INVENTIONS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD BRIAN M. FAGAN, ED. This guide blends details of modern science with tales of ancient innovation. Contributors with backgrounds in archaeology and history explore current scientific understanding of events in human history, from the discovery of fire to the inventions of wooden tools, ancient warships warship, any ship built or armed for naval combat. The forerunners of the modern warship were the men-of-war of the 18th and early 19th cent., such as the ship of the line, frigate, corvette, sloop of war (see sloop), brig, and cutter. With the advent of steel construction and steam propulsion in the latter half of the 19th cent., warships evolved into their modern form., and mummification mummification /mum·mi·fi·ca·tion/ (mum?i-fi-ka´shun) the shriveling up of a tissue, as in dry gangrene, or of a dead, retained fetus. mum·mi·fi·ca·tion (m  m techniques. Covering periods of human history up to A.D. 1520, when the Aztecs fell in the Americas, this guide features inventions from all parts of the world. The book's six sections are "Technologies," "Shelter and Subsistence," "Transportation," "Hunting, Warfare, and Sport," "Art and Science," and "Adorning the Person." Inventions profiled include food preservation food preservation, methods of preparing food so that it can be stored for future use. Because most foods remain edible for only a brief period of time, people since the earliest ages have experimented with methods for successful food preservation. Among the products of early food conservation were cheese and butter, raisins, pemmican, sausage, bacon, and grain. by Ice Age people some 14,000 years ago, thanks to the permafrost permafrost, permanently frozen soil, subsoil, or other deposit, characteristic of arctic and some subarctic regions; similar conditions are also found at very high altitudes in mountain ranges. In 1962 measurements in a borehole drilled on Melville Island, Northwest Territories, Canada, showed that the ground was frozen to a depth of at least 1,475 ft (450 m); comparable thicknesses have been found in other far north regions.; stone architecture, which probably began as walls around the town of Jericho; and music, perhaps originated when a bone was turned into a wind instrument 40,000 to 60,000 years ago. The discussion of each event includes an explanation of how it changed the world. For instance, the Sahara Desert was opened to long-distance trade when a new type of camel saddle was designed. The simple sewing needle made the manufacture of clothing, and therefore arctic living, possible. Hundreds of images help define the featured inventions and their places in history. Thames Hudson, 2004, 304 p., color photos/illus., hardcover, $40.00. HOW TO ORDER TO order these books, please contact your favorite bookstore. Science News regrets that at this time it can't provide books by mail. |
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