Neolithic - Duncan MacPhun - Wattpad

Neolithic

Reads 90
Votes 26
Parts 11
Time 1h 11m

Reads 90
Votes 26
Parts 11
Time 1h 11m

agriculture alphabet arkkadia babylonia bronze chariots china compound-bow copper egypt gilgamesh hammurabi iron maize mesopotamia navigation numbers potters-wheel sargon ships siege-craft steel tin warfare writing

The first agricultural revolutions began about 10,000 BCE in Egypt, China and Mesopotamia (Iraq). 

Trading require counting and the first written language; in general use by 2600 BCE.  The first epic poem, Gilgamesh, was written in cuneiform.   

The first alphabet assigned Semitic characters to Egyptian hieroglyphs about 2000 BCE.  It was adopted by the Greeks about 800 BCE and later modified for the Roman Latin alphabet.

The Chinese built the first blast furnaces (using piston-bellows driven by waterwheels) and cast iron farm tools and weapons were common by 500 BCE.

Austronesians sailed outrigger canoes over 6,000 kilometers from Taiwan to reach New Zealand from about 3000 BCE.  

About 100 BCE the Malays of Indonesia traded between China, India and Africa in sailing ships carrying 1000 people and a 260 ton cargo.

The Greek navigator, Pytheas, sailed to the north Atlantic about 325 BCE where he recorded polar ice, the Midnight Sun and lunar tides. 

The Roman Prefect of Egypt (26-24 BCE), Aelius Gallus, noted 120 trading ships leaving  Myos Hormos for India. 

WHO THE HELL ARE WE? is a series of short books and videos describing the evolution of civilization.  

Almost everyone on the planet is five times wealthier than their ancestors only 50 years ago.  This astonishing phenomenon has also improved health, education, and longevity.  The cause; an explosive growth in ideas and productivity.

It began when we learned to control fire, evolved articulate speech and stumbled onto the way to create infinite wealth; free trade.  The discovery of agriculture made us richer but we also learned  how to destroy wealth.  Great civilization grew up but then disappeared leaving only incredible ruins and ideas.

Later books detail some of the ideas and developments that increased the average life span from about 40 years to more than 80 and the average world income from less than $3 to more than $33 per person per day (and to $140 per day in some countries).All Rights Reserved

agriculture alphabet arkkadia babylonia bronze chariots china compound-bow copper egypt gilgamesh hammurabi iron maize mesopotamia navigation numbers potters-wheel sargon ships siege-craft steel tin warfare writing

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Our Sea by duncmacphun

The arms race began in Mesopotamia with the invention of composite bows, light chariots and crossbows. The Persian (Iranian) emperor tried to conquer Athens in 480 BCE but was delayed by the Spartans at Thermopylae while Greek warships destroyed the Persian fleet. The Macedonian ruler, Alexander the Great, completely destroyed the Persian armies by 326 BCE and established the Greek empire. Then, between 600 and 200 BCE, a few hundred Greeks revolutionized science, mathematics, medicine, engineering, history, law and philosophy. Meanwhile, Greeks settlers in Sicily were in conflict with Rome and, by first century BCE, Romans had conquered Greece, Egypt, Carthage and the old Persian empire. Roman traders made large profits using the Silk Road between Rome, China and India and which created higher incomes though out the Roman empire. Roman engineers built more than 80,000 km of roads throughout the empire and 800 km of aqueducts in Rome delivered a million cubic metres of water each day. WHO THE HELL ARE WE? is a series of short books and videos describing the evolution of civilization. Almost everyone on the planet is five times wealthier than their ancestors only 50 years ago. This astonishing phenomenon has also improved health, education, and longevity. The cause; an explosive growth in ideas and productivity. It began when we learned to control fire, evolved articulate speech and stumbled onto the way to create infinite wealth; free trade. The discovery of agriculture made us richer but we also learned how to destroy wealth. Great civilization grew up but then disappeared leaving only incredible ruins and ideas. Later books detail some of the ideas and developments that increased the average life span from about 40 years to more than 80 and the average world income from less than $3 to more than $33 per person per day (and to $140 per day in some countries).

The Redemption of Maximus by TonyaDavis240

The world is screwed up place. Everyone in it just wants peace when it isn't promised to nobody. We work for ourselves to try to improve our ways of life only for someone who has more to take it. Everything is about monetary gain and if you don't got the green you better have a way to survive. Help wont come when you need it. There is no home and having shame is a simple thing of the past. We all tell people to have hope. We tell them that if they work hard enough that change will eventually come and with that change they will find their happy ending. I've watched humans kill for that happy ending. I've committed murder when a tyrant thought to torture the only good thing in this world I have ever found in this fucked up place. Even when I tried to save it, I still lost it. Yeah, you heard right. I am no saint. This world is far from cupcake and t ,rainbows and their isn't not one soul that could tell me different. I have had to fight to survive since the day I lii I broke out of an egg into this world. No one has ever known where I came from and from the moment I got here I've never know any kindness. I have always been the odd one out because I was different. I'm not talking different just because the color of my skin. I'm talking different because when I get well and truly pissed I turn into a vicious monster. I'm not talking a kiddie monster like the one that creeps under your bed while you are sleeping or chooses to hide in your closet. I'm the type that you cant get away from. I travel through space and time. If I want you, I will have you. I have the powers of invisibility on my side, and you will never see me coming. There is no one that can catch me because I can poof away at the drop of a hat. If that doesn't scare you than the thousands of scars on my body and my size definitely will. But who cares about that shit anyway. Looks aren't everything. I am Maximus.

steam by duncmacphun

On a 10 weeks sea trial in 1761, J.Harrison's chronometer was in error by less than 5 seconds. In 1758, Dr E.Darwin replaced the ancient front axle design with two stub axles, pivoting near the wheel; now a feature of all vehicles. F.G. Koenig used his steam driven press, to print an edition of The Times newspaper, in 1814. The Rocket locomotive won the 1829 Rainhill Trials with a top speed of 30 miles per hour. A steamship, from New York City took 115 days to reach to San Francisco in 1848. In 1851, all telegraph stations in the USA were connected and by 1940 there were 40 telegraph lines across the Atlantic. Corrugated paper was invented in 1856, to stiffen tall hats and, in 1874, Oliver Long inventing corrugated board. In 1861, waterwheel powered air compressors and pneumatic drills, cut construction time by 16 years for a tunnel in Switzerland. Fritz Haber's discovered a process to make ammonia fertilizer in 1914. In 1887, Nicola Tesla invented the first AC motor. In 1903, an automatic machine was able to make 2,500 bottles an hour. WHO THE HELL ARE WE? is a series of short books and videos describing the evolution of civilization. Almost everyone on the planet is five times wealthier than their ancestors only 50 years ago. This astonishing phenomenon has also improved health, education, and longevity. The cause; an explosive growth in ideas and productivity. It began when we learned to control fire, evolved articulate speech and stumbled onto the way to create infinite wealth; free trade. The discovery of agriculture made us richer but we also learned how to destroy wealth. Great civilization grew up but then disappeared leaving only incredible ruins and ideas. Later books detail some of the ideas and developments that increased the average life span from about 40 years to more than 80 and the average world income from less than $3 to more than $33 per person per day (and to $140 per day in some countries).

We Eukaryotes by duncmacphun

About 1.5 billion years ago, the single-celled eukaryotes became the common ancestors of all multicellular plants, animals, and fungi. Fish evolved a primitive lung sac and four limbs, 350 million years ago, so they could crawl between fresh water swamps. About 250 million years ago, the ancestors of all mammals, were tiny nocturnal insectivores and, about 6 million years ago, we began walking on two legs. The most recent Ice Age (2.6 million to 12,000 years ago), severely reduced rainfall in Africa, where Homo habilis was evolving. In Homo erectus (1.9 to 0.5 million years ago), cranial capacity increased to between 850 and 1000 cm3 implying the phenomenal increase of 125,000 more neurons with each generation. Between 70 and 50 thousand years ago, Homo sapiens spread out from east Africa. Then, about 20,000 years ago, evolution made a sharp change in direction. After 250 million years, we ceased to be hunter gatherers. The Neolithic Revolution meant we could never go back. WHO THE HELL ARE WE? is a series of short books and videos describing the evolution of civilization. Almost everyone on the planet is five times wealthier than their ancestors only 50 years ago. This astonishing phenomenon has also improved health, education, and longevity. The cause; an explosive growth in ideas and productivity. It began when we learned to control fire, evolved articulate speech and stumbled onto the way to create infinite wealth; free trade. The discovery of agriculture made us richer but we also learned how to destroy wealth. Great civilization grew up but then disappeared leaving only incredible ruins and ideas. Later books detail some of the ideas and developments that increased the average life span from about 40 years to more than 80 and the average world income from less than $3 to more than $33 per person per day (and to $140 per day in some countries).

"Goodbye Curly Head" by NUmaker

Through thick and thin the Law shall prevail. A new sense of purpose awaits us, children of light, in the land where it all began. The darkness in which we once cowered in fear, now curbed by the might of our endless light. Come, brothers, come, sisters. Let there be peace among the wicked, just as the Law dictates. Peace and certainty is all that you have ever longed for, little angel. A bright, stable future. A roof without holes above thy head. Acknowledgement and recognition of thy existence, feverish dreams of grandeur. Greed born from yearning, treacherous vines of rapacity taint your innocent soul. You seek a future that does not exist. Let thy fingers hold the fragile line between dream and nightmare. Let thy light navigate the path. Shall thee give in and falter, O' land of old, envelop his body in thy unending flame of chaos. Spit out nothing but an empty husk, the remnants of a smile once so bright. Shall thee prevail, O', Great Kazdel, I ask of you, the impossible - take mercy on the innocent. Don't let the radiance dim and don't let the mind turn bleak. Wake, young traveler. Bid thy farewells and burn thy bridges. It's time to say goodbye, curly head. Cross post from AO3. For a shorter and more on-point description, look no further! I had something silly written up before throwing it out in exchange for that wall of text upstairs. It's a little story "about a young, dumb sankta who's been dealt a bad hand at life, looking for his place in all this mess. The pointless search for a better future leads him far, far away from home, to a country forever ravaged by war and misery - Kazdel, the promised land where devils roam free and peace feels out of place." Anyway, it's quite lengthy, but hopefully enjoyable? Slide a comment if you want, I'll give you a tiny kiss on the forehead. Man, do I love comments. (Lastly, to point out, English is not my native language, but I don't think it'll be much of an issue ;3)

Middle Era by duncmacphun

Jesus and Muhammad adopted the Hebrew's belief in one God and Christianity and Islam spread throughout the world. The Chinese were using gunpowder in the 9th century and, by the 13th , cannon dominated the battlefields. Paper money appeared in China from 1216, as many financial transactions were too large for heavy bronze coins. The Anglo-Saxons built light, fast ships to stop the Vikings raiding Britain and, in 1546, Henry VIII established the "Navy Royal" which Elizabeth I used to defeat the Spanish armada. Before 1764 a worker needed 50,000 hours to spin 100 lb of cotton thread on a hand-powered wheel but only 300 hours with a spinning machine. Between 1770 and 1773, James Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle and mapped the coasts of New Zealand, Australia and the west coast of north America. By 100 BCE, Chinese were weaving complex silk brocade cloth. In 1804, J. M. Jacquard reinvented the Chinese loom, using a chain of cards to control which threads of weft or warp appeared on the cloth. This was the beginning of computers. WHO THE HELL ARE WE? is a series of short books and videos describing the evolution of civilization. Almost everyone on the planet is five times wealthier than their ancestors only 50 years ago. This astonishing phenomenon has also improved health, education, and longevity. The cause; an explosive growth in ideas and productivity. It began when we learned to control fire, evolved articulate speech and stumbled onto the way to create infinite wealth; free trade. The discovery of agriculture made us richer but we also learned how to destroy wealth. Great civilization grew up but then disappeared leaving only incredible ruins and ideas. Later books detail some of the ideas and developments that increased the average life span from about 40 years to more than 80 and the average world income from less than $3 to more than $33 per person per day (and to $140 per day in some countries).

Atoms & Light by duncmacphun

In 1657, Otto von Guericke pumped the air from two hemispheres and eight horses could not pull them apart. Amontons found a volume of air shrank as the temperature fell and realized the it would become zero. In 1774, Joseph Priestley isolated oxygen while Lavoisier released hydrogen and burned this with oxygen to make water. In 1832, Michael Faraday built the first electric motor and generator. John Newlands noticed similar chemical properties in a list of elements demonstrating the existence of unknown elements. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek invented a microscope with 300 times magnification allowing him to see bacteria, spermatozoa and red blood cells. In 1605, Kepler concluded that all the planets moved in elliptical orbits with the sun at one focus of the ellipse. Galileo reported that the orbital periods of Jupiter's moons permitted accurate determination of longitude on Earth. Newton and Leibniz independently invented calculus, used extensively in mathematics, science, engineering and economics. WHO THE HELL ARE WE? is a series of short books and videos describing the evolution of civilization. Almost everyone on the planet is five times wealthier than their ancestors only 50 years ago. This astonishing phenomenon has also improved health, education, and longevity. The cause; an explosive growth in ideas and productivity. It began when we learned to control fire, evolved articulate speech and stumbled onto the way to create infinite wealth; free trade. The discovery of agriculture made us richer but we also learned how to destroy wealth. Great civilization grew up but then disappeared leaving only incredible ruins and ideas. Later books detail some of the ideas and developments that increased the average life span from about 40 years to more than 80 and the average world income from less than $3 to more than $33 per person per day (and to $140 per day in some countries).

Flight by duncmacphun

The Orville and Wilbur Wright flew under power in 1903. The first flight travelled only 120 feet but Wilbur flew 24.5 miles in 38 minutes in August 1904. More powerful aircraft engines were developed during WW-1 but airframes were too fragile for aerial fighting. H.Focke's transverse twin-rotor helicopter, broke all helicopter world records in 1937. After WW-1, designers used duralumin airframes and smaller, monoplane wings for fighter aircraft like the Supermarine Spitfire. At Midway, in 1942, American dive-bombers sank three of the four Japanese aircraft carriers. I.Sikorsky developed the first practical single rotor helicopter with a single tail boom rotor and produced over 400 helicopters in WW-2. The Messerschmitt Me 262 was the first jet fighter in action in 1944. For maximum efficiency most jet aircraft need to cruise at about Mach 0.8 (610 mph) and at altitudes above 30,000 ft. In 2021, with battery powered, contra-rotating propellers spinning at 2500 rpm, NASA's Dragonfly helicopter lifted off from the surface of Mars. It weighed only 2 pound. WHO THE HELL ARE WE? is a series of short books and videos describing the evolution of civilization. Almost everyone on the planet is five times wealthier than their ancestors only 50 years ago. This astonishing phenomenon has also improved health, education, and longevity. The cause; an explosive growth in ideas and productivity. It began when we learned to control fire, evolved articulate speech and stumbled onto the way to create infinite wealth; free trade. The discovery of agriculture made us richer but we also learned how to destroy wealth. Great civilization grew up but then disappeared leaving only incredible ruins and ideas. Later books detail some of the ideas and developments that increased the average life span from about 40 years to more than 80 and the average world income from less than $3 to more than $33 per person per day (and to $140 per day in some countries).

Health by duncmacphun

The human population increased from 1 billion to 7.8 billion between 1800 and 2020 because of sewage treatment, clean drinking water, vitamins, vaccines and antibiotics. In the USA in 1800, 46% of babies died before their fifth birthday; in 2020 less than 1% died. (Breastfeeding babies up to 12 months should be given 400 IU of vitamin D per day; 600 IU thereafter). In 1536, Jacques Cartier's crew were cured of scurvy with a tea made from the arbor vitae tree's needles (which have 50 mg of vitamin C per 100g). In 1796, Dr.E.Jenner developed a smallpox vaccine from cowpox. In 1812, When Napoleon invaded Russia only 40,000 soldiers survived a typhus epidemic; over 400,000 died. Between1848 and 1870, life expectancy in Liverpool, England, increased from 19 years to 40 years because of the new sewage system. In 1854, Dr. J. Snow identified a public well as the source of a cholera outbreak in London. In 1865, J.Lister applied a carbolic acid solution, to a boy's broken leg and was amazed when the leg bones fused back together without gangrene. WHO THE HELL ARE WE? is a series of short books and videos describing the evolution of civilization. Almost everyone on the planet is five times wealthier than their ancestors only 50 years ago. This astonishing phenomenon has also improved health, education, and longevity. The cause; an explosive growth in ideas and productivity. It began when we learned to control fire, evolved articulate speech and stumbled onto the way to create infinite wealth; free trade. The discovery of agriculture made us richer but we also learned how to destroy wealth. Great civilization grew up but then disappeared leaving only incredible ruins and ideas. Later books detail some of the ideas and developments that increased the average life span from about 40 years to more than 80 and the average world income from less than $3 to more than $33 per person per day (and to $140 per day in some countries).

Migration by duncmacphun

The Roman Empire began to decline after Germanic tribes crossed the river Rhine in 406 CE. When Constantine III recalled the legions from Britain, three years later, the Angles and Saxons invaded and Britain became known as Angleland. The Visigoths sacked Rome in 410. The Vandals invaded north Africa in 429 and conquered Carthage before crossing the Mediterranean to sack Rome in 455 CE. Meanwhile, Christianity grew from a minor Hebrew religious cult to dominate much of Europe. With the continual violence, people reverted to a poorer lifestyle. However, the metal workers, glass blowers, carpenters, leather workers, rope makers, weavers, potters and farmers developed more efficient horse drawn plows, improved crop yields, build better boats and the first engineers designed water wheels to irrigate crops, grind seeds and saw wood. They invented wooden barrels, wagon wheels and windmills as the Chinese invented paper and printing. Meanwhile, the Indians revolutionized mathematics and Moslems discovered chemistry. WHO THE HELL ARE WE? is a series of short books and videos describing the evolution of civilization. Almost everyone on the planet is five times wealthier than their ancestors only 50 years ago. This astonishing phenomenon has also improved health, education, and longevity. The cause; an explosive growth in ideas and productivity. It began when we learned to control fire, evolved articulate speech and stumbled onto the way to create infinite wealth; free trade. The discovery of agriculture made us richer but we also learned how to destroy wealth. Great civilization grew up but then disappeared leaving only incredible ruins and ideas. Later books detail some of the ideas and developments that increased the average life span from about 40 years to more than 80 and the average world income from less than $3 to more than $33 per person per day (and to $140 per day in some countries).

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Slide 1 of 10

The Redemption of Maximus cover

We Eukaryotes cover

"Goodbye Curly Head" cover

Middle Era cover

Atoms & Light cover

Migration cover

Our Sea

The arms race began in Mesopotamia with the invention of composite bows, light chariots and crossbows. The Persian (Iranian) emperor tried to conquer Athens in 480 BCE but was delayed by the Spartans at Thermopylae while Greek warships destroyed the Persian fleet. The Macedonian ruler, Alexander the Great, completely destroyed the Persian armies by 326 BCE and established the Greek empire. Then, between 600 and 200 BCE, a few hundred Greeks revolutionized science, mathematics, medicine, engineering, history, law and philosophy. Meanwhile, Greeks settlers in Sicily were in conflict with Rome and, by first century BCE, Romans had conquered Greece, Egypt, Carthage and the old Persian empire. Roman traders made large profits using the Silk Road between Rome, China and India and which created higher incomes though out the Roman empire. Roman engineers built more than 80,000 km of roads throughout the empire and 800 km of aqueducts in Rome delivered a million cubic metres of water each day. WHO THE HELL ARE WE? is a series of short books and videos describing the evolution of civilization. Almost everyone on the planet is five times wealthier than their ancestors only 50 years ago. This astonishing phenomenon has also improved health, education, and longevity. The cause; an explosive growth in ideas and productivity. It began when we learned to control fire, evolved articulate speech and stumbled onto the way to create infinite wealth; free trade. The discovery of agriculture made us richer but we also learned how to destroy wealth. Great civilization grew up but then disappeared leaving only incredible ruins and ideas. Later books detail some of the ideas and developments that increased the average life span from about 40 years to more than 80 and the average world income from less than $3 to more than $33 per person per day (and to $140 per day in some countries).