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Note: It shows 271,821 BCE on here because it was the earliest year I could input
There is some disagreement on when fire was exactly discovered, but it is commonly accepted that it was roughly 500,000 years ago. Its discovery allowed for early humans to cook food, which allowed them to evolve to have larger brains and smaller jaws. -
The earliest spears are found to have originated roughly 400,000 years ago and is so far the earliest weapon to be discovered, with more sophisticated sharpened stone spears being dated to around 60,000 years ago.
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Similarly to spears, bows were also an early hunting tool, with examples found around 30,000 years ago
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Due to the increased free time caused by specialization and agriculture, some civilizations created examples of pottery.
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The Neolithic Revolution is used to describe the transition made from being hunter gatherers to agriculture and domesticating animals, with one of the earliest crops discovered being grains such as wheat and barley.
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Cattle were some of the earliest animals to be domesticated, primarily being used for food.
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Textiles were made typically from plants such as hemp, flax, or cotton, and replaced clothing made from animal skins, as used in the Paleolithic era.
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Due to the volatile nature of the rivers that early civilizations were based upon, humans sought to bring water further inland from rivers for a variety of reasons, mainly to increase agricultural output.
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Horses would be one of the most important animals to be domesticated by humans, as they were commonly used for labor (primarily pulling carts). as well as warfare.
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Previously, humans primarily had used copper, or even stone for tools. However, both these materials had major issues, such as copper being too brittle. Bronze was far stronger and lasted longer than copper.
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This time period generally covers when the majority of the world was ruled by large land empires across Eurasia, where the advancement of iron allowed for large-scale construction and infrastructure projects.
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Iron began to be used and even replaced bronze due to advancements in metalworking, as well as being stronger than bronze.
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Generally covers the span of time after the end of the Roman empire and includes increased international trade as well as the spread of Christianity in Europe.
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Around this time, the water wheel became more widespread and began to be used for a variety of tasks such as grinding grain, hammering iron, and crushing ore
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The first windmills first start appearing in Persia around the 10th century and spread to Europe, where there was generally less manpower to perform manual labor.
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Around the 13th century, humans made the first mechanical clock that was reliable and not reliant on certain factors such as clear weather (i.e. sundials).