The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World traces the course of human ingenuity and innovation from the first crude stone tools of our earliest ancestors two and a half million years ago up to the early medieval period, drawing on the very latest research and discoveries, and addressing some of the most fundamental questions about our past. The seventy articles take us on an eye-opening and unusual journey through a panoply of inventions, some fundamental, others just intriguing or bizarre - the taming of fire, cereal agriculture, eyed needles, camel saddles, chariots and contraceptives. There are six sections: Technologies; Shelter & Subsistence; Transportation; Hunting, Warfare & Sport; Art & Science; and Adorning the Person.

Author Biography

Brian M. Fagan is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara. He has written numerous books, including The Seventy Great Mysteries of the Ancient World, Ancient North America and The Long Summer: Climate Change and Civilization.