MAN BEFORE AND MAN IN CIVILIZED SOCIETY

Around 1000 BC a lot more people all over the Mediterranean began to use iron. Gradually mining and smelting techniques became more and more sophisticated. For hunting, there were bone fishhooks and wooden spears with stone tips, and later on stone arrowheads. People began to spin string and knot it together to make nets for fish and birds. They wove thin sticks together to make snares to catch rabbits and squirrels. With the invention of bronze, and later iron, people began to make fishhooks and spearheads out of these lighter, sharper metals. For clothing, first people invented ways to tan hides, to preserve animal skins as leather and furs to keep people warm. Then they invented bone needles and thread, to sew these clothes together. Then in the Neolithic, people invented the drop spindle to spin wool and linen and looms to weave it into clothing. Gradually the design of looms improved, with the invention of the heddle. Dyes were also invented. The next big advance in clothing technology was the invention of the spinning wheel in the Middle Ages, which made it possible to spin four times as fast as before. Knitting was not invented until around 1500 AD. For cooking, the most important invention comes right at the beginning with the invention of ways to make fire: the firestick and flints. By the Neolithic period the oven was invented, and also the spit for roasting meat over a fire. Pottery, for making cooking pots and storing water and food, was very important. People started to use pottery around 7000 BC, and the potter's wheel was invented around 2000 BC, and made pottery making much faster. The use of bronze and then iron to make spits is better because metal will not burn through like wood. But more importantly you can boil water much faster in a metal cooking pot than in a clay one, which saves on fuel. Wooden spoons have existed since the Neolithic. Scholars disagree about the date of the first forks, but certainly there were forks by the Roman period, about 100 AD. Blown glass cups became popular about the same time. The invention of the chimney, in the Middle Ages, must have helped to keep houses from being so smoky, and also reduced the risk of fire. For farming, the most important invention is farming itself, but soon after that comes the simple plow. Later people began to have animals pull the plow, and sometimes put iron tips on the plowshares. The Romans invented a longer handle for the sickle, which made reaping much more efficient. And by the later Roman Empire, around 300 AD, there were heavier plows. On some big farms, an animal-drawn automatic reaper was being used. In the Merovingian period, harrows began to be used. A better form of horse harness was also invented around this time. For transportation, there was first the ox-cart, with the idea of wheels and axles. Horse-riding seems to have been brought to the Mediterranean by the Indo-Europeans, starting about 2500 BC. After that, horse-drawn chariots became popular, both with two wheels and with four. In the Bronze Age, donkeys became popular as pack animals, and in some places people began to build stone roads and bridges for the first time. The Persians, around 500 BC, pioneered the idea of a relay system to carry messages more quickly. The Romans are famous for their carefully laid roads and bridges, many of which are still in use today. It was in the early Islamic period that people first invented a good saddle for camels, and so were able to start using caravans of camels to transport people and things in the southern Mediterranean (we can't say whether the increased use of camels was due partly to the desertification that followed the coming of Islam, when people shifted from pig to sheep and overgrazed the hills, but it seems possible). To get drinking water, and to irrigate fields, many different inventions have been used. The first was baskets lined with tar, and leather bags. Then clay jars were used, which were heavier but didn't leak as much. Soon people began to dig wells to get water closer to home. In Egypt and Sumer, people dug huge canal systems to take the water from the river to their fields, and used levers to raise the water up into higher canals. The Greeks piped water from springs or wells to public fountains in their cities. The Romans built huge aqueducts going for miles from a mountain stream to their cities or their fields. In the Middle Ages, however, most of these aqueducts went out of use, and people went back to using wells again. Man further his exploits which resulted in extensive development of the human society, ie. Civilization. The term civilization can be described as a condition of human society characterized by a high level of cultural and technological achievements and correspondingly complex, social and political developments. Civilization is an advanced state of intellectual, cultural, and material development in human society, marked by progress in the arts and sciences, the extensive use of record keeping, including writing, and the appearance of complex political and social institutions. Civilization have been described as a complex phenomenon (Gulma, 1999), which include vast items such as knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, technology, and it implies the changes that take place in mans immediate environment as a result of activities. It is characterized by mans creations dominating or replacing the natural objects which man has started with. History has it that modern civilization has its routes in four centers, which include: Mesopotamia (3,500BC) Nile River Valley (3000BC) Indus River valley (1750BC) Andean civilization (900BC) Generally, it is considered that civilization had its growth in two regions of the world, from the Mesopotamia in the near or Middle East and the Nile River Valley in Egypt to Indus River Valley which are all group of Mediterranean civilization. The second center of civilization is the Andean civilization, around 900BC, which comprises of Andean and Middle western part of South America, comprising the Artec and Maya civilization. Other forms of civilization, which are characterized by the great empires of Greek and Roman, emerged from the two. When the Roman Empire fell, there was no developed human society for quite while, leading to period of Dark Ages (Not much was known about this period in mans history). The period of Dark Ages was followed by the Middle Ages or medieval time (1450- 1660AD) which was known as the period of scientific study and Astrology. It was an era that brought self- reliance in agriculture, resuscitation of technological innovations that led to invention of water wheel, windmills, and steering ships with rudder, compass, clock, printing technology etc. As the human settlement to the west of the Roman Empire stared developing fast then come the period of renaissance-rebirth of civilization in the part of world known as the West (Europe). This led to Western Civilization, which stared in 16th century. One major feature of this civilization is the Industrial Revolution of 1750AD 1850AD. This is very significant in the history of the development of human societies as the socio-economic condition as well as technological advancement were greatly enhanced. This revolution to large extent brought about a shift in the orientation of the scientist and engineers of the time towards research and development of technologies relevant for domestic economic growth. They researched and invented product for which the capitalist of the period provided fund unlike the scientist of the early societies who were known with scholarly theories about the universe. After the industrial revolution of Europe, the progress of civilization in terms of impact of technological development which stared with advent of Bronze Age, Iron Age, Steam Age, Energy Age, continued with Jet Age, Technology Age, and Computer Age etc. The Industrial Revolution (1850 -1950AD) The early industrial revolution started in the 19th century and still remains the hallmark of the modern technological civilization. It typifies the period of rapid development of England and other European countries through industrialization, which is the building of machines to replace human labour in the processing of agricultural products and production of other basic needs of the society through manufacturing. The economy and social system of the era contributed principally to the great achievements of the time. It was the era when influence, power and money are acquired mainly by technological means. It recorded more profit and increase the national turnover. By 1750AD, England was agrarian country with 80%population living in the countryside (rural area) and urban centers just 20%. The revolutionary change which was to have a significant influence in the total way of life of the people stared off in the urban centers which had become the locations for the mills and industries and hence, it entails the slow and gradual but sudden and revolutionary shift of the means of production from that if employing skilled workers to that of employing machines that requires skill to operate, yet, being productive and cheaper to maintain. The change also brought about the shift of emphasis from the traditional occupation of farming to manufacturing and this drew workers from the lands in the rural areas to urban centers where the mills are located. This becomes possible because of the lucrative nature of the business, which also requires no special skills. Along with this shift, was also the break from the country beliefs and traditions of the pre-Christian Stone Age farmers and the adoption of loose and freer life style of the urban centers? The revolution transformed England of 1750, that by 1880 AD, it is no longer dependent on land but on machines and manufacturing, no longer dependents on heavy skilled labour but on factory conditions, no longer country life but towns life style. Processed food was plentiful and varied and freely sold in shops and markets. Generally, there was great shift of Engineering /technology orientation from scholarly theories about the universe to research and development. Relevant to the domestic economic growth, more inventions, more complex and fundamental Engineering system were evolved. World trade in real sense of it started, and other contrivances such as steam engine, steamship and radio were made. It is the swiftness of this great change in the ways of life on first 100 years, almost sudden nature of change in all ramifications that makes its revolution and industrial revolution.