1. Toilet Paper
As a clean freak, I get very upset when there’s no toilet paper around after I’ve conducted my business. Our toilet paper today are nicely soft and smooth, they won’t cause any abrasions. In the 15th centuries, sailors out at sea had no toilet papers to use. So they had a rope hanging down from the ceiling of their “toilet” (it’s just a huge gap at the side of the sea. By the end of the voyage (normally about 3-6motnhs), you can image how the rope looked and smelt like. Most of our landlubber ancestors used leaves- it’s a trial and error thing that certainly taught them some leaves are poisonous and cause severe inflammation/itching. So be thankful for your toilet papers today.
Read more here for other methods of cleaning asses in history: http://regretfulmorning.com/2009/02/9-bizarre-methods-once-used-to-wipe-ass/
2. The Sewing Needle
This is what an ancient needle looks like. It’s pretty big compared to our modern needles, so it always brings this question to my mind- are they sewing up the hole or making even more holes?
3. The Wheel and axle
Without them, there would have been no carts, therefore no chariots, therefore no bicycles and therefore no cars today. They were the first in our step towards automated transportation and contributed greatly to the great human migration. It is also the basis of modern machinery (i.e. cogs) due to its nature as the foundation of all moving parts.
4. Trepanation
Most of you never heard of this, it is the drilling or scraping of a hole in a human skull. It is done for a few reason- releasing “bad vapors” in the head (i.e. migraines and headaches), to release the soul (through a hole in the head) so the person can commune with the Gods better, or surgery to reduce remove excess bone/bleeding from a head injury. Most people do survive this surgery. In the cave man era, they normal use obsidian chips to scrap out a hole in the skull. It was a pretty messy and painful business.
5. The Oven
I love food- baked chicken, bread, cookies, pizza, etc. The oven was an improvement over the common cooking methods of roasting. It was typically a small little clay/brick dome where a fire was lit inside (around the edges) and the bread was placed in the center. I think food tastes better when cooked over wood or charcoal because they are a lot more aromatic.
6. Ink (Pigment)
Nothing much remains of our caveman ancestors’ way of life except the paintings left on the walls. They depict stories of the hunt, village life and their reverence for Nature. From them, we know that our ancestors hunted in groups and they liked to engage in body painting. These cave paintings were the stepping stones for the transition from oral to written history. Do note that these two forms of history are by no means exclusive as they go hand in hand together.
7. Aqueduct
If you thought the Romans were the first people to construct aqueducts, you were wrong. Our ancestors have been doing there for a looooooooooooooooong time. The Romans only deserve the credit for building Mega-Aqueducts that stretch over huge distances. Even “backward” civilizations like the Aztecs had a sophisticated system of aqueducts bringing in water from the mountains down to their valleys.
8. Ships/ Log Boats
Our ancestors spread out from Africa thousands of years ago by foot and water. Did you know that the indigenous population in South America had aboriginal ancestry? Unfortunately, this has been bred out over the generations. That would mean the Aztecs, Incas, Moche, etc were survivors of people who crossed the entire Pacific Ocean from the Pacific Islands on primitive ships!
9. Basket Weaving
Now that we have plastic bags and plastic containers, the modern world has relegated baskets to trivial use such as floral arrangement and presentation at bread shops. In the past, they were the shopping and storage bins for people. They were used to hold fruits, grain, eggs, bread, etc.
10. Pottery
Pottery was important to our ancestors because they allowed us to store liquids for prolonged periods without having to worry about them going bad. Animal skins could only hold so much, and water or wine turned stale in them. Furthermore, pottery allowed our ancestors to eat and drink in a “civilized” manner through the use of bowls, cups, etc. It also allowed our ancestors to cook stews, lentils, soups, etc over the fire, providing them a change in diet.
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