Introduction: 2000 B.c. to A.d. 699
Overview
Throughout the course of human history, science and society have advanced in a dynamic and mutual embrace. Regardless of scholarly contentions regarding an exact definition of science, the history of science in the ancient world is a record of the first tentative steps toward a systematic knowledge of the natural world. During the period 2000 B.C. to 699 A.D., as society became increasingly centered around stable agricultural communities and cites of trade, the development of science nurtured necessary practical technological innovations and at the same time spurred the first rational explanations of the vastness and complexity of the cosmos.
The archaeological record provides abundant evidence that our most ancient ancestors' struggle for daily survival drove an instinctive need to fashion tools from which they could gain physical advantage beyond the strength of the relatively frail human body. Along with an innate curiosity about the workings and meanings of the celestial panorama that painted the night skies, this visceral quest for survival made more valuable the skills of systematic observation, technological innovation, and a practical understanding of their surroundings. From these fundamental skills evolved the necessary intellectual tools to do scientific inquiry.
Although the wandering cultures that predated the earliest settlements were certainly not scientifically or mathematically sophisticated by contemporary standards, their efforts ultimately produced a substantial base of knowledge that was fashioned into the science and philosophy practiced in ancient Babylonia, Egypt, China, and India.
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