III.

Early Inventions

The earliest artifacts show evidence of human inventiveness. The names of the great archaeological ages—the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age—are derived from the inventive use of stone and metal implements (see Archaeology). Early stone implements were crude, but the purposes they served—protection and food gathering—were instrumental in humans' growing domination of the earth. Many of the most significant inventions and inventive developments occurred before the period covered by written history. These include the invention of crude tools, the development of speech, the cultivation of plants and domestication of animals, the development of building techniques, the ability to produce and control fire, the ability to make pottery, the development of simple political systems, and the invention of the wheel.

The period of recorded history began with the invention of writing, and writing as a means of mass communication became important with the invention of movable type in the 15th century. Invention proceeded steadily throughout the period of written history, but since the advent of printed books, people all over the world have been able to obtain records of the discoveries of the past for use as a basis for further discoveries and inventions.