Approximately 2,700 BC - 1,600 BC: The vast grasslands of North Africa now undergo a drastic desertification
This is the second and final phase in the desertification of the Sahara.
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-- "Sahara turned to desert in abrupt climate change", July 15, 1999,CNN/Associated Press, "Sahara desert born 4,000 years ago" By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse, BBC News | Sci/Tech, http://www.bbc.co.uk/, July 9, 1999
-- "Great civilization on the Nile may owe its start to climate change" By Robert Roy Britt, explorezone.com, http://www.flycast.com, 07.12.99
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 2,000 BC- 1,500 BC: Is there a seachange in human consciousness taking place at this time?
Specifically, are advanced characteristics like reason, logic, and ethics emerging for the first time in significant numbers of the global population?
Prior to this did most people typically suffer thought processes similar to what 20th century medicine will label "schizophrenics"? That is, did most ancient peoples often hear voices and see visions in their head that they could not easily distinguish from reality? Did they lack the abilities to recognize metaphors and maintain their individuality within their communities? If all this is true, will remnants of this ancient affliction form the basis for what later peoples will call religion and spirituality?
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-- This Is Your Brain on God By Jack Hitt, Archive | 7.11 - Nov 1999 | Feature , Wired Digital, Inc.
The Conde Nast Publications Inc.
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Prior to this point in development, did people always make 'reactive' rather than proactive decisions? That is, were all decisions and actions based solely on responses to external conditions and events? Did they immediately and without question simply do whatever thing popped into their heads, or what someone else slightly brighter recommended, with little or no critical consideration of the matter? If so, this would seem to imply a serious lack of planning and preparation and long term thinking on the part of ancient humanity (as well as gross suggestibility and cult-like devotion), which does not seem to be supported by the facts. At least, in many cases. There may well have been a portion of the population (even a large one) suffering from such a low level of conscious awareness and self-determination-- but the evidence doesn't seem to show the phenomena being much more widespread this late in the game than it will be in the still later 20th century. I believe the author of the theory has over-reached in tagging human history as recent as 2000 BC-1500 BC with this idea. Such a widespread low level of consciousness would seem more likely for peoples living much, much earlier than this.
Of course, it must be kept in mind that the vast bulk of people of these times was utterly uneducated, but for learning spoken language, food collection and preparation skills, and other tidbits of instruction and warnings from their parents. Minimal education does leave the human mind woefully vulnerable to impulse and suggestion, as well as paranoia and other mental afflictions, even during the 20th century; imagine the horrors of 2000 BC in this regard. Add to this the awful extra intellectual capacities all people possessed by now (compared to the miniscule opportunities they had for putting such capacities to good use), and you get huge numbers of people grossly overworked and underemployed, desperate for anything to quiet the spinning wheels of an under-utilized mind.
Little wonder then that mind altering beer was being made in 3,400 BC in Egypt (page 26, "Nectar of the Nile", Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990), and various hallucinogenic drugs derived from plant or fungi were being used even earlier.
The primary change in consciousness which some might see in this time may stem more from the rise in formal education in some cultures than any other element. I.e., note that writing had begun to emerge across the world only 1500 years before.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
2,000 BC or later: The last mammoths on Earth may be facing extinction on a remote island in the Arctic Ocean
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-- 'Eco-noble savages' who never were: Prehistory contains many examples of people driving animal species to extinction, explains James Steele, British Archaeology, no 12, March 1996: Features, British Archaeology homepage
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
2,000 BC: Mesopotamians are making their own pseudo-concrete now.
Concrete is basically a form of artificial rock, right? If you agree with that, then folks are making their own concrete-like materials for structures now in Mesopotamia, in the city of Mashkan-shapir (130 km south of 1999 AD's Baghdad Iraq).
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1890 BC: A massive earthquake decimates a developing civilization in Crete
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-- Developing civilizations in Crete were devastated at least two separate times, once by huge earthquake in the middle of the Bronze Age, and some 500 years later again by the volcanic eruption which destroyed the island of Santorini.
-- Analysis: Giant quakes shook human history by MARTIN SIEFF, United Press International, 31 January 2001
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,628 BC: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe
The causes may have been asteroid/comet impacts (or near-misses dusting the atmosphere) or large volcanic eruptions.
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-- "Chaos from Above-- Did Asteroids and Comets Turn the Tides of Civilization?" by MIKE BAILLIE, Discovering Archaeology, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,500 BC: Perhaps the first portable sundials/clocks are in use in Egypt now
Clock mechanisms are also beginning to grow independent of the Sun to mark the hours, with the advent of water driven clocks.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,390 BC: MAJOR CATASTROPHE: A series of volcanic eruptions is destroying the island of Thera (Santorini) in the Aegean (perhaps helping to establish an important element of the Atlantis mythos for millennia to come)
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-- page 99, "Ice on the World", National Geographic magazine, October 1988
This is at least the second time a sophistocated civilization is destroyed in this region.
Developing civilizations in Crete were devastated at least two separate times, once by huge earthquake in the middle of the Bronze Age, and some 500 years later again by the volcanic eruption which destroyed the island of Santorini.
-- Analysis: Giant quakes shook human history by MARTIN SIEFF, United Press International, 31 January 2001
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,350 BC: Humanity is developing iron metallurgy
Egyptians are familiar with hammered iron techniques. Etruscans, smelting.
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-- page 404, "Iron Age", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press
Note that there is conflicting information on the matter of the earliest iron smelting. Another source gives 800 BC-700 BC and the vicinity of Jordan as perhaps the earliest instance of smelting.
-- EARLY IRON SMELTING by HARALD VELDHUIJZEN AND EVELINE VAN DER STEEN, NEWSBRIEFS, Archaeology, Volume 53 Number 1, January/February 2000, Archaeological Institute of America, http://www.archaeology.org/0001/newsbriefs/iron.html
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 2,000 BC-1,000 BC: Asians are processing tree bark into cloth and paper.
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-- pages 122-123, "A Paper Trail from Asia to the Americas", Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
2,000 BC-1,200 BC: Surprisingly sophisticated "wet chemistry" and other techniques are being used by ancient Egyptians
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,200 BC- 700 BC: Metal swords in Europe are sometimes being made now solely for combat; previously they may have been as much ceremonial as anything else
The evidence suggests that this may be a conservative estimate; that the transition from largely ceremonial artifacts to fully functional weaponry may have taken place much sooner than this.
Other weapons too existed prior to the swords; but items like spears and bows and arrows could be used equally well for hunting as war. Swords and other large knives however had little functionality in hunting. Ritual usage, and later application to combat, would seem the main purposes for such blades. By this time swords seem to be being designed for use in groups too rather than individual combat. Warfare appears to be getting organized by this period.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,159 BC: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe
The causes may have been asteroid/comet impacts (or near-misses dusting the atmosphere) or large volcanic eruptions.
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-- "Chaos from Above-- Did Asteroids and Comets Turn the Tides of Civilization?" by MIKE BAILLIE, Discovering Archaeology, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 128,000 BC- 1,000 BC: World sea levels may be highly unstable throughout this entire period
There are indications it may be changing quickly between 3,000 BC and 1,000 BC. Around 1,500 BC it may fall a meter in just 10 to 50 years.
Note that such changes as these may occasionally wreak havoc with coastal settlements and especially major sea harbors and ports of call.
Is it any wonder that many cities are deserted, then become buried in sediment or shifting sands-- or even submerged? At least a few instances of city losses may occur so fast many residents find themselves unable to escape.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,000 BC: The wheel is in common use throughout eurasia; Textile production is now the largest endeavor of most of humanity worldwide; Periodic contact between the peoples of southwestern North America and Central America with China (and China with Europe) seems to be occuring.
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-- page 33, "Ignoring the Wheel", Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990
-- "The mummies of the Urumchi" by MITZI PERDUE
Nando Media/Scripps Howard News Service, June 8, 1999, http://www.nandotimes.com
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The mummies of Urumchi appear to prove that europeans were traveling to ancient China along what will someday be known as the Silk Road around 1000 BC, and possibly had been doing so since 2000 BC. Scientists are uncertain as to why the travelers are in this region at this time, as so far as is known the Chinese are only now domesticating the silkworm. Some europeans appear to have settled along the route, strangely within inhospitable deserts. Their wool clothing indicate they brought sheep with them. Wheat grains too were found among them. A local epidemic seems to have been the cause of their demise.
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-- Ancient China--Part 2, citing Chinese Archaeologists Find Evidence of Craniotomies 4,000 Years Ago, July 30 1999 - Xinhua News, and Secrets of Cherchen Man, ABC News - April 1999, From The Mummies of Urumchi by Elizabeth Barber
-- "Study: China Influenced Ancient Americans" By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Brief, DISCOVERY ONLINE, http://www.discovery.com, found on or about 9-3-99
Some Egyptian mummies from 1000 BC or earlier apparently test positive for traces of tobacco and cocaine use during life. Rameses II also tests positive. This indicates some sort of trade contact between Egypt and the Americas.
Large amounts of nicotine seem present in some bodies from Austria, Germany, and China dying sometime between 3,700 BC and 1,100 AD as well.
There are clues pointing to a torturous trade route for such goods spanning Asia through China and across the Pacific to Central and South America, rather than the much more direct route across the Atlantic. Such a route implies that these substances would have been fabulously rare and expensive goods for their time, affordable only by the wealthiest individuals. The supply line was apparently months to years long, indicating significant problems about maintaining freshness in the products too.
-- TOBACCO AND COCAINE IN ANCIENT EGYPT From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #111, MAY-JUN 1997 by William R. Corliss, citing Priscilla Ross; the New England Antiquities Research Association Transit newsletter, 9:5, Spring 1997
The Egyptian pharaoh Henut Taui exhibits signs of both tobacco and cocaine use.
-- MYSTERY OF THE STONED PHARAOH From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #116, MAR-APR 1998 by William R. Corliss, citing Bernard Merigaud; "La Cocaine des Pharaons," Telerama, p. 122, September 3, 1997. Cr. C. Mauge
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,000 BC-146 BC: Ancient Greece rises and falls, and lays down much of the foundation for the western civilization which will follow over the next two thousand years; Archimedes resists a Roman invasion with a 'death ray' based on solar power around 212 BC
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-- page 336, "Greece", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press
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It may be that the addition of vowels to consonants in the Greek alphabet during this time was a crucial breakthrough for human thought processes, thereby allowing for the remarkable explosion in abstract thinking in the west-- because for the first time all of human thought could be readily expressed phonetically. This may have freed up expression from the left hemisphere of human brains for the first time in a direct and conscious fashion.
As most people are right-handed, and the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body, this meant the most physically experienced and capable hemisphere for the majority of the human population was now fully enabled for verbal expression, for the first time ever.
Reason, logic, and analytical thinking (all strengths of the left hemisphere) for the first time could fully surface in communications with others, rather than only as physical actions.
The ancient Greeks possessed and used oil lamps for night time lighting, and ground and polished magnifying lenses made of quartz crystal for close examination of gems and documentation, and convenient fire starters. The fire starters may have hung from the neck, on a cord passing through a hole in the stone.
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-- ANCIENT OLD-WORLD LAMPS TURN UP IN NEW ENGLAND From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #34, JUL-AUG 1984 by William R. Corliss, citing Norman Totten; "Late Archaic Greek Lamp Excavated at Amoskeag Falls," Early Sites Research Society, Bulletin, 10:25, no. 2, 1983 and James P. Whittall, II; "Byzantine Oil Lamp from Connecticut," Early Sites Research Society, Bulletin, 10:26, no. 2, 1983
-- LENSES IN ANTIQUITY From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #53, SEP-OCT 1987 by William R. Corliss, citing George Sines, and Yannis A. Sakellarakis; "Lenses in Antiquity," American Journal of Archaeology, 91:191, 1987
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212 BC: In the early 21st century a long time legend regarding the use of a 'death ray' by Archimedes to defend Syracuse, Sicily against Roman invasion in 212 BC seemed to be proven likely to be factual. The ray caused Roman naval vessels to burst into flame.
The primary doubt among historians throughout the 20th century regarded the issue of whether Archimedes might have had access to the mirrors required to focus sunlight sufficient to set fire to the vessels. New findings suggest that yes, he did. Indeed, the ancients appear to have possessed sufficient optical knowledge to create both mirrors and telescopes.
Archimedes was a well known inventor of weapons technology in his time, creating such things as catapults, and grappling hooks and cranes to lift boats from the water.
Optical lensework of the quality required to make Archimedes' mirrors may have been known to the ancients centuries before Archimedes was born, as a lens from the 800 BC city of Kalhu of Assyria seems to indicate.
6th-century Constantinople followed the example in the legend to defend itself in the same way, centuries later. A 1973 test of the concept (dozens of men armed with large mirrors focusing sunlight on boats more than 100 feet away) was successful.
The Greeks and Romans seemed to have known (or suspected) some things that would be forgotten by later peoples; such as the beneficial health effects of olive oil.
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Applying high quality olive oil after sunning could offer protection from skin cancer. It seems to reduce genetic damage stemming from ultraviolet radiation. Olive oil also is a good source of antioxidants.
-- Virgin Olive Oil May Protect Against Cancer-Report, Yahoo!/Reuters, May 10, 2000; Olive oil 'wards off skin cancer', BBC News, 10 May, 2000
Both the Greeks and later the Romans used olive oil and sand for cleansing the body, rather than soap. The sand and oil would be rubbed on, then scraped off again. The scraping would serve to cleanse the skin of not only foreign agents like dirt and grease, but dead skin cells as well. After this a rubbing of herb-derived salves would be applied.
-- Colonial Soap Making. Its History and Techniques by Marietta Ellis, found on or about 3-4-2000
Olive oil in the diet seems to help protect against colon cancer.
-- Study: Olive Oil May Protect Against Colon Cancer By Patricia Reaney, Yahoo!/Reuters, September 18, 2000; Olive oil seems to protect against cancer, 18 SEPTEMBER 2000, EurekAlert!, Contact: BMA Press Office [email protected] 44-207-383-6254, Olive oil, diet and colorectal cancer: an ecological study and an hypothesis 2000; 54: 756-60, Contact: Dr Michael Goldacre, Unit of Health-Care Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, Institute of Health Sciences, University of Oxford. [email protected]
Olive oil cuts the medicinal requirements for treating high blood pressure-- sometimes to zero.
-- Olive oil may reduce need for blood pressure drugs, Yahoo!/Reuters Health, March 28, 2000, SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine 2000;160:837-842
Olive oil, along with peanuts, peanut butter and certain other substances, appear to benefit the health of the heart.
-- ADVICE: Peanuts or popcorn? By STEVE INFANTI, Scripps Howard News Service/Nando Media, March 25, 2000, http://www.nandotimes.com)
Some of the beliefs and legends among ancient Greeks concerning giant warriors of the past may have come in part from the discovery of stunning items like mastodon, mammoth, or other animal skeletons where fabled heroes were believed to lie buried.
-- A TIME OF GIANTS AND MONSTERS BY ADRIENNE MAYOR, Volume 53 Number 2, March/April 2000, the Archaeological Institute of America, http://www.archaeology.org/
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 800 BC-500 BC: Humanity is expanding its use of iron-- and beginning to produce and use soap
Western europeans are using metals to create artwork, coins, tools, and vehicles.
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-- page 404, "Iron Age", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press
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Unfortunately, soap is considered a medicinal agent rather than a necessary item for cleansing, for centuries to come.
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Humanity collectively has known of soap since at least 300 BC. Sporadic production and use in 600 BC and before is also evident. Not until 100 AD-200 AD however did the importance of soap for washing become widely realized.
-- soap and detergent; Encyclop�dia Britannica, found on or about 2-16-2000
The Babylonians were apparently making soap about 2,800 B.C. to clean wool and cotton prior to weaving. It's possible soap was known at least to some portions of humanity even in prehistoric times (before 3,500 BC), as it could have been discovered by accident. For instance, rain atop the remnants of a fire where meat had previously been cooked might produce a soapy foam which would surely have looked unusual to observers. Early peoples could also have noticed that using water to rinse out a meat cooking pot which had accidentally been contaminated with ashes from the fire would produce the strange looking foam too. Other noticeable effects would have been a cleaner-than-usual cook pot and hands after the cleaning was done.
Before the use of soap became widespread, other methods of body cleansing were utilized. To wash themselves, the Romans rubbed sand and olive oil on their skin, then scraped it off. Herb salves would then be applied.
The practice of soap making and using was largely forgotten or ignored for a time during the Dark Ages in Europe. The appearance of the Plague caused authorities to shut down public bath houses, as they thought such locations might aid in the spread of disease. This idea may have contributed to the long time practice during the Renaissance of avoiding baths in preference of using perfumes instead.
As soap, like bread, does not occur naturally but through a sequence of artificial processes, its secrets were somewhat harder for people to discover than something like the phenomena of fire.
-- Colonial Soap Making. Its History and Techniques BY Marietta Ellis, found on or about 3-4-2000
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 500 BC: The Roman Empire appears, based in Italy; The concept of corporate entities begins to emerge
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-- page 785, "Italian Republic", The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1996, World Almanac Books
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The Romans will at some point develop the concept of "universitas", whereby an assembly of people or objects may be legally designated to be something akin to an individual person, possessing many of the same rights and privileges of same. To the Romans, the Roman state itself, as well as various cities and private associations, will come to be considered such entities.
These universitas are the forerunners of what will later be called "corporations".
Corporations might theoretically be considered immortal in many ways, as they may continue on indefinitely by perpetually replacing mortal stockholders and employees, and replenishing other depleted resources as required. Corporations may possess all the diverse capacities, skills, and knowledge of their owners and employees, in a legal form essentially equivalent to that of a single individual citizen, acting in their own best interests.
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-- "Corporation", pages 55, 56, Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, Volume 7, Funk & Wagnalls, Inc., MCMLXXIX
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
347 BC: The death of Greek philosopher Plato
Among other things, Plato made reference to an earthquake devastated utopia by the name of Atlantis in his dialogues. Plato was a student of Socrates and teacher to Aristotle.
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-- pages 655-656, "Plato", and page 52, "Atlantis", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 300 BC: The accumulation of books to create the famed Library of Alexandria in Egypt is begun by the Macedonian Greek general Ptolemy I
Alexandria's information is aggressively collected from roughly 300 BC through 640 AD (a range of almost 1000 years): master copies of some works are sometimes bought, sometimes stolen; many scrolls from Persian, Indian, African, and Hebrew sources are translated into Greek; original works of documentation are generated from the Library's own local research labs/theaters focusing on subjects like chemistry, botany, astronomy, zoology, and anatomy, as well its sister university classes relating to mathematics, physics, biology, engineering, geography, medicine, and literature. Unfortunately, increasingly large chunks of the library are lost beginning around 48 BC. At its height, the complete Library may have consisted of as many as 550,000 volumes.
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-- pages 8-10, "The Tragedy of Alexandria", Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 300 BC: Ctesibius of Egypt discovers some of the basic principles of hydraulics...
...utilizing them to construct a musical water organ and water clock.
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-- page 34, "Egypt's Edison", Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
300 BC-100 BC: The Greek Aristotle is speculating on the subject of physics, while the Greek Archimedes formalizes the lever principle...
...Carthage develops convex lenses, Romans begin paving roads, and the Chinese are producing paper.
In 240 BC Eratosthenes makes an accurate estimate of the size of the Earth (circumference and diameter).
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-- The Learning Kingdom's Today in History for June 19, 2000, http://www.LearningKingdom.com
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 208 BC: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe
The causes may have been asteroid/comet impacts (or near-misses dusting the atmosphere) or large volcanic eruptions.
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-- "Chaos from Above-- Did Asteroids and Comets Turn the Tides of Civilization?" by MIKE BAILLIE, Discovering Archaeology, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 200 BC: Concrete is invented by the Romans
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-- Major Discoveries in the History of Technology, page 590, The Universal Almanac 1996, Andrews and McMeel
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 500 BC- 500 AD: The Garamantian civilization of the central Sahara rises and falls, largely due to water availability: The Book of Genesis of the collection some day to be known as the Christian Bible may be written around 500 BC
The Garamantes may have begun their saga around 1200 BC as the Sahara dried, shifting from conventional agriculture to oasis-based farming. The Garamantes gradually extended the water from the oases via construction of 3000 miles of underground channels to irrigate their crops
By 500 BC the Garamantes were building their first towns.
By 100 BC the Garamantian civilisation of the central Sahara had become a potent political force in the region, possibly boasting a population of 50,000, and at least three major cities plus 20 other settlements, commanding an area of some 70,000 square miles.
By 500 AD a combination of water shortages and reduced slave trade led to the decline of the Garamantes.
Signposts 50,999 BC-10,001 BC Contents
Approximately 100 BC- 65 BC: A ship equipped with a most unusual and remarkably advanced mechanical navigation computer sinks near the Greek isle of Antikythera
The complex assemblage of gears (including epicyclic/differential systems), dials, and inscriptions for operating instructions and construction/maintenance-- strongly resembling the quality of an 18th century european clock-- will come to be called the "Antikythera mechanism" by discoverers almost 2000 years later.
Based on other objects found in the wreck, the ship may have been traveling from the isles of Rhodes and Cos towards Rome when disaster struck. The device showed signs of use and occasional repairs/maintenance.
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-- "An Ancient Greek Computer" by Derek J. de Solla Price
From June 1959 Scientific American p.60-7, URL: http://www.giant.net.au/users/rupert/kythear/kythera3.htm
-- Gears from the Ancient Greeks, E. Christopher Zeeman, K.B., F.R.S.
UT San Antonio, February 20, 1998 / Trinity University, February 23,
1998
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Around Zero or One AD: Global human population stands at about 200 to 300 million; Humanity may have settled and re-settled many Polynesian islands across the Pacific many times; Electric battery technologies may be invented, then forgotten again; Cancer is relatively rare now, but has still been recognized and documented in times earlier than this
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200 million global population estimate from page 553, Paleontology: The History of Life, The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1996, World Almanac Books and 3.4 Human Population History and Future; Geography 210: Introduction to Environmental Issues, Created by Dr. Michael Pidwirny, Department of Geography, Okanagan University College, 12/20/99, Human Population History and Future (http://www.geog.ouc.bc.ca/conted/onlinecourses/geog_210/contents/210~3~3~4.html)
250 million estimate from: Why Are There So Many of Us? Description and Diagnosis of
a Planetary Ecopathological Process by Warren M. Hern, University of Colorado, Why Are There So Many of Us? (http://www.drhern.com/fulltext/why/paper.html), found on or about 1-17-2000.
300 million estimate from: How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth? By Carl Haub, found on or about 5-31-2000
Cancer was known prior to One AD. It didn't strike people as often though because people simply didn't live as long then as they do in the late 20th/early 21st centuries.
-- Breast Health Network - Michelangelo's Medical Marble By Adam Marcus, HealthScout Reporter, http://www.breasthealthnetwork.com/, Nov 23, 2000
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Some of the vessels used to cross and colonize the Pacific were surprisingly large for such ancient times, carrying as many as 250 people-- plus ample supplies-- at a time.
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-- Illustrated Transcript of The Future Eaters, Illustrated transcript of episode 2, Nomads of the Wind, Presented and Narrated by Dr Tim Flannery,
Author of the Future Eaters, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. email: [email protected], http://www2.abc.net.au/, found on or about 9-12-99
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Over past millennia, those sea going expeditions which led to 'permanent' settlements on idyllic Pacific islands were often doomed; eventually wiped out via violent storms or enormous tidal waves which periodically swept through the area, scrubbing islands clean of all evidence of human habitation, including domesticated animals and/or small vermin heavily dependent on the people, such as rats. Later other explorers would 'discover' these uninhabited islands again and re-settle them, thus starting a new cycle. So it is little wonder that virtually no traces of habitation older than a couple thousand years or so can be found on most Pacific islands which fail to meet a certain critical mass in size and shape.
It now appears the best way to track humanity's forays across the oceans is to look for mysterious extinctions of bird life and other species in the far past of each island, rather than more direct signs of human habitation.
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-- `Eco-noble savages' who never were: Prehistory contains many examples of people driving animal species to extinction, explains James Steele, British Archaeology, no 12, March 1996: Features, British Archaeology homepage
-- "U.S. News: Archaelogists study dogs to learn about humans (7/5/99), The secret life of animals" BY JONAH BLANK , Science & Ideas 7/5/99, U.S. News Online
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There may be some use being made of crude electric batteries in the vicinity of Baghdad Iraq now. Such devices may be in use for tasks like electroplating of gold onto less valuable metals.
If indeed electric batteries are being used now in various spots around the globe, they are somewhat rare, perhaps secret technologies, and at some point forgotten entirely-- forcing humanity to re-invent them from scratch again almost 2000 years later.
Here may be one excellent reason to abhor secrecy regarding some matters among both private and public interests; the potential loss of important technologies to humanity. Imagine the difference it could make for the world if electric technology were to spread and be further developed beginning now rather than nearly 2000 years later.
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-- "Ancient Electricity?", pages 20-21, Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990
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The Chinese invent magnetic compasses a thousand years before Europe will possess them.
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-- Major Discoveries in the History of Technology, page 590, The Universal Almanac 1996, Andrews and McMeel
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1 AD: Bio-stitches in use in India
An Indian surgeon is using the decapitated heads of large ants to stitch together wounds of patients; first the jaws of the living ants are applied to the desired location, then their bodies are torn away, leaving the head to maintain its clamping action, and aid in the healing of the wound.
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-- page 43, "Living Sutures", Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
80 BC-9 AD: Cast iron suspension bridges in China, and differential gearing created by Greeks
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Sometime before 37 AD: There are hints of rare creations of metal works involving aluminum by this time...
...though confirmed dates for modern production and use of aluminum are much later-- after 1800 AD(!) Yet the Roman emperor Tiberius may have been presented with an extraordinary (for its time) aluminum cup, for which he killed its maker-- since the new metal appeared superior to gold and silver in practical functionality, and so might render those other metals worthless.
Note the apparent murder of a clever inventor here, purely for purposes of preventing disruptive technologies from affecting established markets. Innovation is often punished rather than rewarded in human history.
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-- page 24, "A Fatal Offering", Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990
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Of course, civilization may have had other reasons for its propensity to stifle or kill innovators. For creativity and intelligence often seem to go hand in hand with mental aberrations. In modern times for instance writers seem more prone to addictions and disorders of various sorts than non-writers.
Other evils possibly associated with creativity at this time and earlier may be the obvious and long remembered excesses often perpetrated by the rich and powerful-- such people were often the only ones among a population with the resources to actually realize their greatest ambitions and wildest ideas-- goals which often as not injured or otherwise harmed others as a direct or indirect consequence. It might have often been impossible to stop, much less punish the wealthy or influential for such actions; but for 'creative' folks of less imposing stature there were a myriad of remedies available...
Keep in mind that a great many new ideas or innovations may have run afoul of various powerful religions of the time as well, thereby bringing down upon the heads of the creators punishment from yet another source.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
60 AD: The Egyptian scientist "Hero" holds the concept of the steam engine
Note that if this concept were to be seized upon and suitably developed now, world technology could be advanced by over 1600 years in the fields of self-propelled vehicles, water pumps, and more, compared to what actually transpires over coming millennia. The wheel, principles of mechanical leverage and hydraulics, crafting of aluminum, cast iron, copper, certain elements of chemistry, and more are all available today, in addition to the steam engine idea, but no one integrates these elements into a coherent whole.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
79 AD: Pompeii and Herculaneum are "catastrophically buried" by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius
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-- page 713, "The Mediterranean: Sea of Man's Fate" by Rick Gore, December 1982 National Geographic magazine
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 100 AD: The Roman Empire is spread across Europe, the Mideast, and north Africa; The Romans have paved 50,000 miles of roadways
This is the peak of the Roman Empire, at least in terms of land area controlled by the entity and its forces. The Empire includes much of the Middle East and Europe, as well as Britain, Egypt, and the remainder of north Africa.
By now the Romans have constructed some 50,000 miles worth of paved roads-- a greater cumulative amount than will be reached by the completed USA interstate highway system of the late 20th/early 21st centuries.
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-- page 53, Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Sometime before 300 AD: Metal artifacts of surprisingly pure aluminum alloys are made in China...
...but is it intentional or accidental? That's uncertain.
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-- page 26, "A Riddle Cast in Aluminum", Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 400 AD- 500 AD: A Celtic king and associates may now be inspiring the tales which someday will lead to the legend of King Arthur
Some believe the site of Arthur's castle is located at Tintagel, in England.
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-- King Arthur Conquers the Net By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery Online News Brief, Discovery Online, http://www.discovery.com/, Dec. 31, 1999; the URL of www.kingarthur.co.uk is also given
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately early 400s AD- 512 AD: Mount Vesuvius is erupting periodically in ever more violent and destructive episodes-- perhaps sapping the strength of the Roman Empire...
...even as the adverse climatic effects of the eruptions also spur northern peoples to move south due to disruptions in agriculture-- leading to invasion of the Roman Empire. Effects of the eruptions are witnessed as far away as China. Tree ring data from Russia and Sweden indicate the climate of the entire northern hemisphere may have been affected by way of abnormal cooling.
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-- Fall of Rome: Mount Vesuvius' Fault? By Larry O'Hanlon, Dec. 17, 1999, Discovery Online, Discovery News Brief, http://www.discovery.com/
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 536 AD- 541 AD: Tree growth rings and rare historical accounts of this time point to worldwide ecological catastrophe
The causes may have been asteroid/comet impacts (or near-misses dusting the atmosphere), large volcanic eruptions, or perhaps even the passing of the Earth through a great cloud of cosmic dust in space.
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-- "Chaos from Above-- Did Asteroids and Comets Turn the Tides of Civilization?" by MIKE BAILLIE, Discovering Archaeology, http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com
-- "Did the Dark Ages begin with a bang?" by Robert Matthews
Connected, Electronic Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk,
29 July 1999, Telegraph Group Limited
An abnormal cold spell struck the world around 536 AD- 545 AD, according to tree ring data.
-- Mongolian Tree Rings Confirm Global Warming Findings By Lauren Marshall, 08-Feb-2001, UniSci Daily, unisci.com
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The period of climatic disaster following in the wake of the event looks to have lasted roughly 15 years.
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-- THE 536 AD DUST-VEIL EVENT From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #96, NOV-DEC 1994 by William R. Corliss, citing "Raining Death and Dark Ages," London Times, July 27, 1994. Cr. A. Rothovius and M.G.L. Baillie; "Dendrochronology Raises Questions about the Nature of the AD 536 Dust-Veil Event," The Holocene, 4:212, 1994. Cr. L. Ellenberger
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One characteristic of the event is a record-breaking widespread and long-lived dry fog over Europe and the Mideast such as 20th century science will recognize as a sign of atmospheric ash and gases from large volcanic eruptions. Such fogs seem to afflict one or more areas of the world every few centuries.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
577 AD: Chinese women of the Northen Qi kingdom create matches for fire starters; Small pox is emerging in some parts of the known world
Europe won't see matches until 1530 AD-- almost a thousand years later.
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-- page 27, Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990
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It is around this time (570 AD) records begin showing signs of small pox afflicting various populations.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
200 AD-600 AD: Chinese porcelain and steel make their debut
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
622 AD: The Islam Constitution of Medina formalizes religious tolerance in the Moslem world for Jews and Christians, so long as they pay an annual tax to the government
Muhammad will die in 632 AD.
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-- The Crusaders' Giant Footprints By Ken Ringle; Washington Post; October 23, 2001; Page C01
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
638 AD: Muslims take Jerusalem
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-- 'Crusade' doesn't sit well in Islamic world By Sally Buzbee; The Seattle Times Company; seattletimes.com; The Associated Press; September 18, 2001
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By 640 AD Muslim Arabs control all of Palestine.
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-- page 619, "Palestine", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
48 BC- 640 AD: The Library of Alexandria in Egypt (along with the vast majority of its irreplaceable treasures of human history and knowledge) is repeatedly damaged, then finally destroyed, in a series of man-made catastrophes
A harbor fire started by Roman soldiers accidentally destroys several thousand volumes of the library in 48 BC. Fanatical Christians burn and pillage much of the Library and its contents in 391 AD. Around 640 AD Islamic Arab fanatics complete the destruction, burning the remaining books in order to heat their bath water over a period of months.
Humanity may never recover (or realize the full extent of) all the knowledge and history lost at Alexandria. Note the knowledge store erased here is a major portion of that native to both the Eurasian and African continents(!)
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-- pages 8-10, "The Tragedy of Alexandria", Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 700 AD: The legendary Egyptian city of Herakleion sinks beneath the Mediterranean Sea, possibly within only a matter of hours
Prior to the sinking Herakleion was a prosperous port city strategically located within the mouth of the Nile river. Unfortunately, the city was built upon an unstable marshy region, which likely made it easy for an earthquake or storm to leverage that instability into a full-scale sinking.
Around this same time the Chachapoyas warrior tribe of South America is settling one of the most forbidding regions on Earth-- the mountainous jungles of the eastern Andes. And perhaps establishing the city eventually to become the source of the El Dorado legends concerning seven golden cities.
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-- Cities in the Sand By Josh Fischman and Rachel K. Sobel, Cover Story 7/10/00, U.S.News & World Report Inc.
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 600 AD- 1,000 AD: The Wari Empire of South America (perhaps the continent's first) is paradoxically prospering upon harsh twin peaks in the Atacama desert of Peru
Their primary city consisted of government and religious buildings on one mountaintop, and homes on an adjoining peak. This arrangement was very extravagant for the times, being relatively far from food and water sources in the lowlands.
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-- Cities in the Sand By Josh Fischman and Rachel K. Sobel, [With Carol Salguero in Peru and Surekha Vajjhala], Cover Story 7/10/00, U.S.News & World Report Inc.
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 876 AD: A symbol for zero is in use in India
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-- The digital century: Computing through the ages by the PC World staff, (IDG) /CNN, November 24, 1999
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Sometime before 1000 AD: Steel is being manufactured by the advanced Huntsman Process (co-fusion) in the city of Gyaur Kala, Turkmenistan; Sometime after 1000 AD, some European craftsmen realize the secret of producing efficient magnifying lenses (but afterwards the knowledge is lost again)
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-- "The secrets of 10th century steel production unearthed in desert remains", Contact: Andrew McLaughlin
[email protected]
44-171-451-7395, EurekAlert!, MATERIALS WORLD, www.materials.org.uk, Institute of Materials , 2 AUGUST 1999
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Some medieval craftsmen know the optimal shape for a magnifying lens at least as early as sometime between 1000 AD and 1200 AD-- or 500 years before Descartes will realize it.
Viking rock crystal lenses are apparently made for use as fire starters, magnifiers for craftsmen, and to cauterize or sterilize wounds. The lenses show signs of being manufactured via a lathe. It may be they are being made in eastern Europe.
The lenses perform close to the efficiency of 20th century versions. Unfortunately, the knowledge appears to have been subsequently lost at some point afterwards, leaving Descartes to re-invent it, and later document it, in 1637.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,006 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion
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Was Earth struck by radiation from exploding super novas in 1006 and 1054?
-- "Can Supernovas Scar Earth?" By Mark Sincell, Discovery News Brief, Discovery Online, http://www.discovery.com/, found on or about 9-23-99
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,009 AD: Friction between the Muslim/Arab worlds and Christianity increases substantially now
For hundreds of years now small numbers of european Christians have been making visits to the Holy land, usually with few problems from the Islamic authorities or people. Now the caliph of Egypt suddenly orders the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem to be destroyed (in Christian belief this was the tomb of Jesus). After this Arabs and later Muslim Turks begin sometimes attacking Christian pilgrims when they come.
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-- The Crusaders' Giant Footprints By Ken Ringle; Washington Post; October 23, 2001; Page C01
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,044 AD: The Chinese now possess gunpowder
Here is a potential turning point in history. For if the Chinese had pursued the implications of this technology and implemented them militarily, they could well have laid the groundwork for a world dominated by eastern culture rather than western, in the millennium that will follow.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,054 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion
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Was Earth struck by radiation from exploding super novas in 1006 and 1054?
-- "Can Supernovas Scar Earth?" By Mark Sincell, Discovery News Brief, Discovery Online, http://www.discovery.com/, found on or about 9-23-99
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,095 AD: Pope Urban II calls on Christians to seize Jerusalem from the Muslim "infidels" for the safety of pilgrims
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-- The Crusaders' Giant Footprints By Ken Ringle; Washington Post; October 23, 2001; Page C01
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,100 AD: Angkor Cambodia is perhaps the largest city on Earth at this time, with one million inhabitants
Note that this extraordinary urban concentration of human population in this area, for this time, could hint at even grander examples of civilization in Southeast Asia during preceding millennia-- before the Great Global Erasure wherein sea levels worldwide rose a minimum of 325 feet between 15,000 BC and 3,000 BC.
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-- Unraveling History's Mysteries By Joseph B. Verrengia
The Associated Press
Aug. 30, 1999, ABC News Internet Ventures, http://www.abcnews.go.com/
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,181 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion
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Was Earth struck by radiation from exploding super novas in 1181, 1320, 1572, and 1604?
It looks that way, according to unusual concentrations of nitrate in ancient ice cores sampled by scientists.
-- "Can Supernovas Scar Earth?" By Mark Sincell, Discovery News Brief, Discovery Online, http://www.discovery.com/, found on or about 9-23-99
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 950 AD-1,200 AD: This is a warmer than usual time in terms of world climate
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-- page 99, "Ice on the World", National Geographic magazine, October 1988
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East Africa suffers a prolonged dry spell around 1000 AD to 1270 AD.
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-- Arid lands by Fred Pearce, From New Scientist magazine, 29 January 2000
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1201 AD: An earthquake in Upper Egypt now may kill a million people
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-- Analysis: Giant quakes shook human history by MARTIN SIEFF, United Press International, 31 January 2001
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,270 AD: Roger Bacon is experimenting with the science of optics
In 1278 glass mirrors will be invented-- a device which will be very handy to the science of optics.
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-- "TIME TRIPPING", July 14, 1999, San Francisco Chronicle, Page 2/Z1, www.sfgate.com, URL: http://www.robotwisdom.com/
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,096 AD and 1,291 AD: The struggle between Muslims and european Christianity for Jerusalem
Various european Christian kings several times (in perhaps eight major campaigns) use their armies to attack Muslim nations in the "Holy Land" from 1,096 AD to 1,270 AD. These attacks are termed the "Crusades".
Though the Christian armies manage to temporarily take and hold Jerusalem at various times, the Muslims finally expel them permanently from the area by 1,291 AD.
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-- 'Crusade' doesn't sit well in Islamic world By Sally Buzbee; The Seattle Times Company; seattletimes.com; The Associated Press; September 18, 2001
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Pope Urban II's 1095 call to arms set all manner of european men on the march to Jerusalem for reasons ranging from religious faith to adventure to looting. The vast majority of the Arabs were stunned at the huge army of belligerents suddenly laying siege to their cities, and had no idea why they had come. They also noted the europeans, unlike the Muslims, did not seem in the habit of bathing or wearing fine clothes.
At this time the Islamic Arabs were near their pinnacle of civilization for the period. In many ways they were significantly advanced over the europeans, such as in the size and architecture of their cities, their scientific accomplishments, and other matters.
In 1099 the invading Christians massacred both Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem and desecrated Islam's Dome of the Rock. Piles of hands and heads were heaped in the streets.
Centuries of extreme violence followed.
Though the Muslims prevailed over the Christians in the matter of Jerusalem by 1291 AD, in the centuries that will follow the european Christians and their descendents will match and then surpass most all the secular, scientific, and technological achievements of the Muslim world, to dominate the planet by 2000 AD-- while much of the Muslim world by then suffers poverty and opressive governments. By the 20th century AD many Muslims will blame the european Christians and their descendents for their own plight.
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-- The Crusaders' Giant Footprints By Ken Ringle; Washington Post; October 23, 2001; Page C01
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,299 AD: Mysteriously, humanity seems not to notice a new object in the skies as bright as the full Moon at this time
It was a supernova explosion only 500 lightyears from Earth, of a star 15 times the mass of the Sun.
There is also a smallpox epidemic in Europe at this time; one possible result of the epidemic among survivors is that a small portion of the population will one day have descendents enjoying immunity to a future scourge known as HIV-- which leads to AIDS.
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-- A relative of smallpox is first virus found to invade cells as HIV does, EurekAlert!, 2 DECEMBER 1999, Contact: Wallace Raven
[email protected], 415-476-2557, University of California, San Francisco
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,300 AD: Cannon are being used against castles in Europe; Global population may be 400 million.
Total world population may be 400 million.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,312 AD: A mighty African fleet from Mali may land in Recife (also known as Purnanbuco) in Brazil this year
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According to the book 'The Saga of Abubakari II...he left with 2000 boats' by Gaoussou Diawara, the African emperor Abubakari II ruled a rich empire comprising virtually all of West Africa during the 14th century, but gave it all up to explore the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. He turned his empire over to his brother Kankou Moussa and left on his journey of discovery in 1311.
-- Africa's 'greatest explorer' By Joan Baxter, 13 December, 2000, BBC News Online
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,320 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion
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Was Earth struck by radiation from exploding super novas in 1181, 1320, 1572, and 1604?
It looks that way, according to unusual concentrations of nitrate in ancient ice cores sampled by scientists.
-- "Can Supernovas Scar Earth?" By Mark Sincell, Discovery News Brief, Discovery Online, http://www.discovery.com/, found on or about 9-23-99
Another source speaks of a super nova 640 lightyears from Earth, which occurred around 1320 AD. It was classified a type II supernova: the explosion of a star with 15 times the mass of the Sun.
-- Antarctica Gives Clues To 'Lost' Supernova; Antarctica - Part 2, citing
Reuters, September 16, 1999, and New Scientist
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,334 AD - 1,351 AD: MAJOR CATASTROPHE: The Black Death (Bubonic Plague? Or Ebola virus?) kills a third the population of europe (as well as others throughout Asia and northern Africa)
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-- Could A Nasal Vaccine Finally Get Rid Of The Black Death? New Scientist, 2 DECEMBER 1998,
Contact: Claire Bowles
[email protected]
44-171-331-2751
80% of the European population was killed by the Black Plague? The article cited below seems to say this, but that figure is much larger than numbers given elsewhere (of which I'm aware). Of course, 80% does seem to better fit the anecdotal information seen below, than 30%. I'll try to narrow this estimate down as more information becomes available.
-- American plague by Jonathan Knight, 19 December 2000, New Scientist Online News
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The death toll is staggering; some entire regions suffer severe depopulation. The ground of entire countries is littered with the dead. Coastline populations were devastated. Ships are found drifting in the Mediterranean with their entire crew complement dead.
A few locales escape virtually unscathed by the epidemic, such as Harem, Schisur, and Maara el nooman in Arabia. Elsewhere, Germany suffers far fewer losses proportionately than other European nations.
Religious fanaticism will grip Europe in the aftermath of such widespread death. Extremists will become so influential both the church and state will join forces to suppress them. Things in general will spin out of all control, with one consequence being ethnic and religious persecution soon beginning in full force, and being directed at groups like the Jews.
The Hohokam and Anasazi cultures of southwestern North America half a world away also begin a rapid deterioration now. Could it be contact with europe or asia has brought the plague to this part of the New World? Inhabitants of this region of North America will continue to suffer sporadic outbreaks of the disease even into the late 20th century.
The Bubonic Plague may have first appeared in Athens Greece around 430 BC.
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-- BUBONIC PLAGUE AS AN INDICATOR OF DIFFUSION? from Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #45, MAY-JUN 1986 by William R. Corliss, citing L. Lyle Underwood; "Bubonic Plague in the Southwest," Epigraphic Society, Occasional Publications, 14:207, 1985
One possibility is that one or more unusually long droughts were affecting parts of North America around this time. Evidence exists indicating lengthy droughts between 912 AD and 1112 AD, and 1210 AD to 1350 AD, in the vicinity of the Sierra Nevada.
-- Climate conclusions drawn from research on ancient trees By JOHN D. COX, Nando Media/Scripps McClatchy Western Service, January 1, 2000, http://www.nandotimes.com
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As described elsewhere on this site, most ocean islands may get scrubbed clean of their inhabitants every other millennia or so by terrific storms or tidal waves. However, just as sufficiently heavy construction may weather even the winds of hurricanes, so too might it survive much of what tsunamis or a week or so of fierce wind-blown seas could mount against it. Such fortifications may have been what the builders of Nan Madol had in mind.
Nan Madol on Micronesian Pohnpei is a substantial complex of artificial islands with robust walled structures built atop them, in the Pacific Ocean. Besides offering the builders extra dry real estate where such stuff is rare, they also offer barriers against storm and wave otherwise not available in the vicinity.
The heavy duty construction appears to be completed (or interrupted) around 1,400 AD-1,500 AD-- which suggests the possibility that the bubonic plague has reached this most remote of places too by now.
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-- THE LOST CITY OF NAN MADOL From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies #45, MAY-JUN 1986 by William R. Corliss, citing Charles J. Hanley, "Oregon Anthropologist Unravels Story of Lost City of Pacific," The Oregonian, February 3, 1986. Cr. D.A. Dispenza
A virus similar to modern ebola was apparently the real cause of the Black Death-- which means another devastating plague could strike humanity at any time (since modern sanitation measures would do little to stop the spread of ebola).
-- Black Death caused by 'ebola' virus, not rats By Robert Uhlig; 22 November 2001; Telegraph Group Limited; telegraph.co.uk
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,364 AD: First guns appear in Italy
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,380 AD- 1,420 AD: East Africa suffers an intense drought
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-- Arid lands by Fred Pearce, From New Scientist magazine, 29 January 2000
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,401 AD- 1,700s AD: Amidst a popular new interest in ancient secrets, reports of perpetual flame technology in millennia old tombs appear
The ideal and myth of perpetual flames still strikes awe in people now, some 71,000 years after their ancestors first began imagining such a thing might be possible, after the invention of the lamp.
Some experimentation and public speculation regarding such matters occur around 1,300 AD ("Book of Fires" by Marcus Grecus). In the 1400s robust searches for ancient works, ideas, and treasures began in earnest. During this frenzy, there appeared some reports of discoveries of perpetual flames in long buried tombs and other locations-- such as in 1,401, at the tomb of Pallas, son of King Evander from the time of Troy. Some claimed the lamp there may have burned for 2600 years. The discoverers supposedly extinguished the lamp, though only after considerable difficulty and trial and error. Other lamps claimed to have burned for more than a thousand years were also reportedly found. Many or most of the claimed finds involved locations related to the Roman Empire in some way.
In many instances reports stated there to be a volatile fluid sustaining the flame. There are also indications that at times the sealed nature of a room helped sustain the flame too-- perhaps in a somewhat misleading fashion. Speculation might suggest that a room in which the air was somehow kept saturated with a suitable catalyst which combined with only a tiny amount of combustable fuel from a lamp's own reservoir, might allow the lamp reservoir to last much longer than 20th century observers might expect. The catalyst might also keep oxygen levels in the same room sufficiently low as to minimize the combustion rate. The heavy presence of the catalyzing gas in the air of a freshly opened tomb might also mislead observers into believing the odor came from the lamp reservoir, thereby designating the lamp's own fuel as more volatile than it necessarily was (a volatile fuel would dissipate into the air relatively quickly, negating the possibility of a long-lived flame). It may be that the catalyst itself included a restricted source of oxygen for the flame, compared to normal atmospheric mixes.
Reports of such discoveries continued into the 1600s. Some perpetual flames seemed to be sealed in glass containers, and be observed to continue burning for months after removal from their original locations-- until being dropped and broken, or otherwise lost track of.
After around 1,650 discoveries of perpetual lamps seemed to drop to nil. But intellectuals of the period attempted to unravel the secret of such things-- if they truly existed. One intriguing lead came from the discovery of phosphorus. Upon witnessing the weird properties of the substance many decided perpetual flames might be feasible after all.
Phosphorus is highly poisonous. It must be stored underwater as exposure to air causes spontaneous ignition.
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-- page 646, "Phosphorus", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press
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Other investigators (such as Robert Plot) later suggested that perpetual flames must enjoy inexhaustible sources of fuel, such as natural gas or oil, welling up from underground (such phenomena do occur naturally in some locations).
But this did not solve the problem of a sealed tomb. No air, no flame. But what if the ancients could devise a way to automatically ignite the flame every time the door was opened, and fresh air admitted? That way the appearance of a perpetual flame would always exist when the living visited the site. And be much easier on the resources and materials of the lamp as well.
A bit of phosphorus included in the wick might re-ignite the flame whenever fresh air became available-- as from the tomb door opening.
However, there remains negligible evidence or documentation of phosphorus use or the plumbing necessary to feed the flames from natural gas and oil desposits, in available reports of such perpetual flames.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,450 AD: The whole of Europe of this time boasts only ten percent of the total number of books once housed in the Alexandria Library [of 47 BC Egypt]; Could this mean european humanity has forgotten 90% of its collective past history and knowledge?
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-- page 9, "The Tragedy of Alexandria", Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,492 AD: Columbus makes his first voyage to America
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,440 AD-1,500 AD: Western european science is beginning to surpass Islamic efforts; Gutenberg creates the printing press...
...by 1,500 Europe will boast over 1,000 print shops in operation.
Algebra and trigonometry have been created by Arabs. Significant works of chemistry, optics, and astronomy also are coming from the Arabs. But the world of Islam tends to discourage such efforts among its members.
This seeming bias against science and technology among Islamic peoples will gradually allow the less inhibited Christian dominated western europeans to achieve substantial superiority over the nation of Islam in matters of technology and economics. This is a turning point in the creation of world powers and domination.
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-- Tracing the millennium in the stars By GAIL RUSSELL CHADDOCK, October 28, 1999, Nando Media/Christian Science Monitor Service, http://www.nandotimes.com
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,500 AD-1,519 AD: Leonardo da Vinci is engaged most heavily in his scientific and technological contributions to humanity
He has previously spent the bulk of his time in artistic and architectural pursuits. Now he is researching anatomy and theories of mathematics, "...geology, botany, hydraulics, and mechanics."
It's a toss up as to whether humanity benefits or suffers due to da Vinci's most astounding innovative concepts remaining largely ignored by the powers of this time and later-- because many inventions are military in nature and (if broadly implemented) may only have intensified war and conquest, and inspired a worse escalation in weapons technology over following centuries, than otherwise occured. On the other hand, if more attention were paid to da Vinci's works, that might also greatly accelerate technological advances in general from this point on, resulting in later 20th century humanity perhaps enjoying (or suffering) technologies far advanced over what actually transpires. But what would World Wars I and II have been like with satellite-based beam weapons, cyborgs, robotic VTOL fighter and bomber aircraft, and brilliant nuclear cruise missiles?
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-- page 461, "Leonardo da Vinci", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia (2nd edition), Columbia University press, 1983, 1989
Leonardo may well have invented the modern version of the telescope, rather than Galileo. He might also have been the first to use a prism to reveal the light spectrum (instead of Isaac Newton). Other of his concepts included scissors, robot humanoids, automatic assault weapons, folding furniture, and counterweighted doors which would open and close themselves.
-- Father of invention by MIRANDA SEYMOUR, January 9 2000, The Sunday Times, Times Newspapers Ltd. This article is a review of the book biography LEONARDO DA VINCI: The First Scientist by Michael White, Little, Brown
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,500 AD-1,800 AD: Western Europeans are adopting new sleeping habits to better cater to the demands of the emerging Industrial Age
Everywhere else in the world from prehistoric times through 2,000 AD, people tend to sleep not alone or with just a single partner, but in groups. For instance, infants sleep with their parents. If not in the same bed, at least in the same room. There is often a fire burning in the room too.
This behavior also often includes other family members in the same room, if not the same bed. Domesticated animals (such as dogs) may also share the room. Not all these room inhabitants sleep at the same time; some family members may be awake and performing various chores while others are sleeping. Members tend to awaken and go back to sleep several times during the night, largely at their own schedules.
The natural variance in individual sleeping schedules appears to offer a survival advantage for the group, helping to insure that one or more of its members will be awake and/or easily wakened virtually any time, should an emergency situation arise-- thereby making everyone safer than they would otherwise be. Everyone staying/sleeping in the same room also offers strength in numbers; should a danger suddenly threaten the group, awakened members may quickly press this advantage against the threat. Factors like this were especially important in primitive times against predators, and will remain important even in 2000 AD, wherever war or violent crime remain significant elements of daily life.
The great dependence on sunlight in many cultures even in 2000 AD (and especially before the advent of electric light, for everyone) forces most sleep to occur during night-time hours-- too much sleep, in fact, which is the complaint from many living under these conditions.
From experiments mimicking prehistoric conditions with no artificial lights whatsoever, it appears prehistoric humans typically rested lying down for two hours before falling asleep-- then slept for somewhere between three and five hours. They then awoke for approximately an hour, but remained inactive, falling asleep again for perhaps another four hours. This pattern matches somewhat with the general mammalian pattern of two important periods of sleep per day-- although for many animals these periods may take place during daylight as easily as night.
Besides increasing the safety of the sleeper in terms of external threats, this type of sleep pattern may also have allowed people to recall and consider more often their dreams than later human beings will usually be able to do.
Adults tend to sleep on just about any surface, and usually without a special head rest of any kind, such as a pillow. No special clothing is used for sleeping. And if one has the inclination and opportunity to nap during the day, they do so, pretty much wherever they happen to be. One person napping atop a wood pile as others cook or weave nearby is not unusual.
Adolescence seems to demand more sleep time, even as the teens also tend to naturally go to sleep later and awake later than they did before, or will after, this stage.
This difference in adolescent sleep patterns may also be related to the fact that many cultures conduct rituals of initiation, maturity, and other kinds late into the night, often purposely causing sleep deprivation in order to create an alterred state of mind (and perhaps induce greater openness to suggestion/persuasion) in the participants. Such rituals may often involve preparing young men for battle, among other things.
Only in the west do these traditional sleeping patterns undergo radical changes, beginning around 1,500 AD. Later, as political and economic pressures from the west affect other cultures, the rest of humanity's sleeping patterns also begin to change.
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-- Slumber's Unexplored Landscape By Bruce Bower From Science News Online, Vol. 156, No. 13, September 25, 1999, p. 205, Science Service
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1556 AD: The Chinese Province of Shansi suffers 830,000 dead as a result of an earthquake
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-- Analysis: Giant quakes shook human history by MARTIN SIEFF, United Press International, 31 January 2001
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,560 AD- 1,620 AD: East Africa suffers an intense drought
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-- Arid lands by Fred Pearce, From New Scientist magazine, 29 January 2000
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,572 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion
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Was Earth struck by radiation from exploding super novas in 1181, 1320, 1572, and 1604?
It looks that way, according to unusual concentrations of nitrate in ancient ice cores sampled by scientists.
-- "Can Supernovas Scar Earth?" By Mark Sincell, Discovery News Brief, Discovery Online, http://www.discovery.com/, found on or about 9-23-99
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
"Countless suns exist; countless earths revolve around these suns in a manner similar to the way the planets revolve around our sun. Living beings inhabit these worlds."
- Giordano Bruno, 1584
Bruno was an Italian monk and philosopher. The statement above (plus other acts) got him excommunicated from the Catholic church and thrown into a Roman prison for eight years. After this he still would not refute his statements, and so was burned at the stake.
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-- Planet sightings boost odds of life in universe, and Contact: Very modern discoveries. A FLORIDA TODAY Space Online special report By Todd Halvorson and Robyn Suriano; Contact: Is Anyone Out There? 1999, FLORIDA TODAY Space Online
http://www.flatoday.com/space
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,604 AD: Earth is struck by radiation from a relatively nearby supernova explosion
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Was Earth struck by radiation from exploding super novas in 1181, 1320, 1572, and 1604?
It looks that way, according to unusual concentrations of nitrate in ancient ice cores sampled by scientists.
-- "Can Supernovas Scar Earth?" By Mark Sincell, Discovery News Brief, Discovery Online, http://www.discovery.com/, found on or about 9-23-99
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,611 AD: The King James Version of the Holy Bible is published
Many 20th and 21st century readers of this tome will be routinely astonished at the relatively recent vintage of this work.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,620 AD: Cornelis Drebbel invents the submarine by constructing a craft from wood and leather capable of remaining submerged for 15 hours; the slide rule is invented
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-- page 794, "submarine", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia (2nd edition), Columbia University press, 1983, 1989
Some say Englishman Edmund Gunter invented the slide rule in 1620.
-- The digital century: Computing through the ages by the PC World staff, (IDG) /CNN, November 24, 1999
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Other sources credit William Oughtred with the creation of the slide rule in 1622 (using logarithms from Scot John Napier's 1612 calculating device named Napier's Bones).
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,627 AD: Francis Bacon predicts air tanks, telephones, electric motors, refrigeration,
airplanes, tape recorders, submarines, and robots
The predictions are found in the work "The New Atlantis", published not long after Bacon's death.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,543 AD- 1,687 AD: Copernicus determines the proper geometry of the Solar System, Galileo makes breakthroughes in mechanics principles, Issac Newton presents the laws of motion
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,641 AD: The colonial governments of America are granting invention patents
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-- "Patent", pages 354, 355, Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, Volume 18, Funk & Wagnalls, Inc., MCMLXXIX
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Patents are essentially legal monopolies granted for the ownership of a particular useful idea or good, to those who satisfactorily demonstrate it to government first.
Patents were originally granted only to individuals in medieval times.
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-- page 629, "patent", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia (2nd edition), Columbia University press, 1983, 1989
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,642 AD: The first functional mechanical calculator is created by Blaise Pascal
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-- The digital century: Computing through the ages by the PC World staff, (IDG) /CNN, November 24, 1999
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,648 AD: Semjon Deshnjov proves that Asia and America are separate continents by sailing between Alaska and Kamchatka
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,650 AD: World human population stands at 500-600 million
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Source for 600 million estimate: 3.4 Human Population History and Future; Geography 210: Introduction to Environmental Issues, Created by Dr. Michael Pidwirny, Department of Geography, Okanagan University College, 12/20/99, Human Population History and Future (http://www.geog.ouc.bc.ca/conted/onlinecourses/geog_210/contents/210~3~3~4.html)
Source for 500 million estimate: Why Are There So Many of Us? Description and Diagnosis of
a Planetary Ecopathological Process by Warren M. Hern, University of Colorado, Why Are There So Many of Us? (http://www.drhern.com/fulltext/why/paper.html), found on or about 1-17-2000, and How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth? By Carl Haub, found on or about 5-31-2000
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,657 AD: Cyrano de Bergerac describes space travel using rockets to go up and parachutes to descend
By 1657 Cyrano de Bergerac makes several proposals for how space travel might be achieved; one of them involves rockets; he also describes parachutes being used for the return trip.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,664 AD: Rene Descartes has published after his death a paper proclaiming that lifeforms like humans and animals are simply very complex machines rather than anything more
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,670 AD: One corporation created now will continuously survive for at least the next 330 years;
Robert Boyle discovers hydrogen; Francesco de Lana realizes the lifting power of lighter-than-air volumes
Hydrogen bubbles are produced from certain metals immersed in acids. Boyle notes that the gas is flammable.
Francesco de Lana designs (but doesn't build) an airship lifted by four copper spheres containing less air pressure than normal air (a partial vacuum). The idea of lift from lowered air pressure is a sound one, which will someday help lead to lighter-than-air craft utilizing hot air, helium, or hydrogen.
The Hudson's Bay Company in Canada is created in 1670. For a time it will own a third of Canadian real estate. Initially dealing in furs and exploration and settlement of the wilderness, it will spin off several divisions in 1930, and eventually come to operate the biggest department store in Canada by 2000.
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-- The Learning Kingdom's Cool Fact of the Day for July 21, 2000, http://www.LearningKingdom.com
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,673 AD: Christiaan Huygens shows off a motor driven by periodic explosions of gunpowder
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,675 AD: An early form of the HIV virus may jump from chimpanzees to humans around this time, during the hunting and butchering of the animals
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One study involving scientific dating of viral genetic information points to this conclusion.
It appears that the virus may have stayed contained in African villages for centuries, until around the 1960s/1970s, when circumstances led to many villagers moving into big cities, and African populations overall interacting/intermingling much more with the global population, via migration, tourism, business, scientific, religious, and government aid missions, etc., etc. Modern air and ship travel also helped spread the disease.
-- Belgian Research Hints at 17th Century Roots for HIV By Ian Geoghegan, Reuters/Yahoo! Science Headlines, November 24, 2000
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,680 AD: Some new clocks begin to sport minute hands
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,692 AD: An earthquake causes 32 plus acres of the pirate haven Port Royal in the Carribbean to collapse into the sea
"....buildings,
streets, houses, and their contents and occupants...[all fell into the sea suddenly]"
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,698 AD- 1,769 AD: Over 1600 years after the Egyptian "Hero" first conceptualized the steam engine, practical implementations finally become available to western industry...
...in 1698 by Britain Thomas Savery, for pumping water from mines, in 1712 by Britain Thomas Newcomen, and in 1769 by Scotsman James Watt.
Simpler uses of steam energy appear to have been utilized still earlier, like around 1663, according to a Marquis of Worcester. The purposes then included raising well water to the surface and ruining cannon.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,721 AD- 1,728 AD: A major rabies epidemic is taking place in Hungary (perhaps spawning the vampire legend)
Human beings with rabies tend to become aggressive and sexually charged, and one out of four will express tendencies to bite other people. It is usually men rather than women who go rabid. Victims of rabies also suffer a sensitivity to light, and sleeplessness, and may tend to roam at night.
Legends of human vampires begin to emerge in the aftermath of the epidemic.
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-- The science behind the Vampire by Brahm Rosensweig, [email protected], October 30, 1998, http://exn.ca/html/templates/mastertop.cfm?ID=19981030-52
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Victims of rabies infections may not experience their first symptoms for weeks or years. A terrible thirst arises which cannot be quenched with water.
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-- Hidden Worlds Collide By STEVE STERNBERG Science News Online, February 8, 1997, http://www.sciencenews.org
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,740s AD: "Sheffield steel" technology is re-discovered again, after being lost for a thousand years
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Southampton Saxon smiths knew the secret of making high quality steel many centuries before Sheffield steel makers. The knowledge was probably lost before due to the steel produced being not only 100%-200% harder than comparable steels of the time, but many times more expensive and available only in much smaller quantities as well.
-- Foundry Fathers by Mick Hamer, From New Scientist magazine, 23 December 2000
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,752 AD: Benjamin Franklin proves with a kite that lightning is a form of electricity
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-- Major Discoveries in Physics, page 576, The Universal Almanac 1996, Andrews and McMeel
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,755 AD: Lisbon in Portugal is struck by a large earthquake, killing 30,000
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Portuguese Lisbon is a boom town in 1755 due to gold and diamond mines, when a massive earthquake strikes, killing 30,000.
-- Analysis: Giant quakes shook human history by MARTIN SIEFF, United Press International, 31 January 2001
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- American Benjamin Franklin, 1,759 AD
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page 348, Benjamin Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 15th edition, by John Barlett, Little, Brown, and Company, 1980
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,768 AD: A huge relative of the 20th century dugong and manatee is driven to extinction in the northern Pacific Ocean
Known as "Steller's Sea Cow", the ponderously moving mammal, growing to as large as 30 feet in length, was eaten into extinction by otter hunters in less than 30 years after it was found.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,770 AD: James Cook claims the eastern coast of Australia for Great Britain
Europeans had been familiar with the coasts of Australia since at least 1605 (Dutch expeditions), but hadn't seen much value in the continent during that time. Even now, the first thing they will do with Australia in years to come is establish a penal colony there (1788).
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-- page 55, "Australia", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press, and
Chapter 10 MYTHS & LEGENDS ON OLD MAPS, http://www.antiquemaps.co.uk/, found on or about 2-8-2001
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,772 AD: The remains of the sunken Kerguelen island-continent are discovered by modern humans
Frenchman Yves de Kerguelen-Tremarec is the captain of the far ranging vessels Gros-Ventre and Fortune which happen upon the islands. English captain James Cook would a few years later name the main island after Kerguelen-Tremarec. But the group may come to be better known as the Desolation Islands, due to their dreary nature. Until the 20th century Kerguelen will serve largely as a haven for ships hunting whales and seals.
Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,773 AD- 1,782 AD: A Great Destruction of Chinese history and knowledge; Chinese Emperor Qian Long orders the compilation of "the Sikuquanshu, or Complete
Library in Four Branches"-- which essentially destroys all Chinese history and intellectual works not particularly favored by the Emperor of the time.
There'll be no way to know (circa 2000 AD) how much precious knowledge and history is lost forever in the implementation of this project. Note the knowledge store possibly decimated here surely represents a major portion of that native to central and southeast Asia.
This project collected every book in China (holding back even a single book was considered a capital offense), then destroyed all those tomes which the Emperor felt diminished his own reputation in some way.
What was left from the filtering was condensed into a collection expected to take up some 175 CD-ROMs circa 1999 AD.
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-- The emperor's new database
by Peter Cochrane, 5-26-99, "Electronic Telegraph" and "The Daily Telegraph", http://www.telegraph.co.uk
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The final distillation of information resulted in only seven original copies of the work. Four of these will themselves be destroyed before 2000 AD. A digitized version of the work will be available (for a price) from Digital Heritage Publishing Ltd. around the dawn of the third millennium.
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-- Chinese database is a gift to humanity by DAN GILLMOR
Mercury News Technology Columnist, Monday, November 1, 1999, http://www.mercurycenter.com/
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
Approximately 1,760 AD to 1,840 AD: East Africa suffers an intense drought
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-- Arid lands by Fred Pearce, From New Scientist magazine, 29 January 2000
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,775 AD- 1,783 AD: The American Revolution takes place, offering profound implications for human civilization for centuries to come
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-- page 25, "American Revolution", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia (2nd edition), Columbia University press, 1983, 1989
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,783 AD: Lighter-than-air aircraft are invented (balloons)
Frenchmen Jacques and Joseph Etienne Montgolfier are the inventors.
Here is a lost technological opportunity. For in the decades that follow civilization could easily develop this technology into devices rivaling those of 1900 and later, perhaps as much as a century ahead of the schedule which does happen to transpire. France could possibly conquer the other superpowers of the time, and more, due to the military advantages lighter-than-air craft can provide now. Staggering scales of wealth producing commercial implementations are also possible; but virtually nothing is done.
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-- pages 63-64, "balloon", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia (2nd edition), Columbia University press, 1983, 1989
A large volcanic eruption in Iceland (Laki) apparently caused calamity on the other side of the world (the remote reaches of northwest Alaska) in 1783: "The Time that Summertime Did Not Come", as the event is known in native American myth of the vicinity. Only ten people are said to have survived of the Kauwerak population. Tree ring records seem to confirm the climatic event as being the worst in that region in 900+ years. Japan also notes an unseasonably cool summer, while the whole northern hemisphere is cooled slightly by the atmospheric effects of the eruption. The rest of North America appears little affected by the event.
Laki produced the biggest lava flow of recorded history.
-- Tree-Rings Show Mythic Disaster Did Take Place, By Kurt Sternlof, 28-Jan-2000, UniSci Daily, http://unisci.com/
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,790 AD: USAmerica passes its first patent and copyright laws
Patents are essentially legal monopolies granted for the ownership of a particular useful idea or good, to those who satisfactorily demonstrate it to government first.
Patents were originally granted only to individuals in medieval times.
Copyrights give the creator of literary and artistic works exclusive control over their publication, for a certain period of time.
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-- page 629, "patent", page 194, "copyright", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia (2nd edition), Columbia University press, 1983, 1989
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The reason for the creation of the patent laws? "...to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive rights to their respective writings and discoveries..."..at least according to Article One, Section 8 of the US Constitution).
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-- "Patent", pages 354, 355, Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, Volume 18, Funk & Wagnalls, Inc., MCMLXXIX
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A MOMENT OF EXTRAORDINARILY GOOD LUCK FOR SOME, BAD FOR OTHERS
The forces of Kamehameha and Keoua in Hawaii are struggling to determine who will be the king of the island nation. A sudden volcanic eruption of Kilauea decimates the forces of Keoua, clearing the way for Kamehameha to become king.
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-- Godzilla's Attacking Babylon! BY MARK ROSE, September 22, 1999, ARCHAEOLOGY, the Archaeological Institute of America, http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/godzilla/index.html
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,792 AD: Gas lighting appears in Scotland
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-- "TIME TRIPPING", July 14, 1999, San Francisco Chronicle, Page 2/Z1, www.sfgate.com, URL: http://www.robotwisdom.com/
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,799 AD: A specimen of the platypus is examined in London, then declared to be a hoax
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-- The dream of the platypus by Brahm Rosensweig, [email protected], August 16, 1999, http://exn.ca/html/templates/mastertop.cfm?ID=19990816-52, EXN.CA
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
1,800 AD: Perhaps 1800 years after electric batteries were invented and forgotten the first time, Volta invents the electric battery once again
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-- Inventions; Science and Technology, page 174, The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1996, World Almanac Books
-- "Ancient Electricity?", pages 20-21, Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients, Library of Curious and Unusual Facts, Time-Life Books, 1990
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Signposts 2,000 BC-1,800 AD Contents
The above article(s) come from and make references to a collection copyright © 1993,
1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 by J.R. Mooneyham (except where otherwise noted in the text). Text here explicitly authored by J.R. Mooneyham may be freely copied and
distributed for non-commercial purposes in paper and electronic form without charge if this copyright
paragraph and link to jmooneyham.com or jrmooneyham.com are included.
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