Idle Thoughts on an Idle Summer Night

[SANDRO43]

For some obscure reason, tonight I got to thinking about historical world cultures and their impact on our current Western way of thinking, which stimulated me to lay down a not-exhaustive list - in approximate chronological order down the ages - showing what each contributed significantly IMO - I welcome any additions/changes:

- Sumers/Akkads: oldest writing (cuneiform), trade
- Egyptians: almost nothing at all, except adobe mud bricks
- Jews: religion (monotheistic)
- Babylonians: astronomy,  mathematics, medicine, first extant literary piece (Epic of Gilgamesh), first extant code of law (Code of Hammurabi)
- Phoenicians: first alphabetic script, Tyrian purple, extensive maritime trade
- Greeks: almost everything (poetry, theatre, medicine, astronomy, mathematics, phylosophy, sculpture, architecture, analysis, etc. etc.)
- Romans: civil & military organisation/law, engineering & construction (round arch, concrete, aqueducts, efficient manpower management: slaves ), public entertainment (chariot races and gladiatorial games), etc.
- Byzantines: churches, mosaics, icons, sacred chanting, intricate bureaucracy
- Early Medieval Italians: monastic orders (e.g. St.Benedict)
- Vikings: long-range sea-faring
- Medieval Arabs: mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, coffee
- Medieval Irish: itinerant monks, preserving/copying historical manuscripts
- Medieval Italians: alfresco and perspective painting, architecture (Romanic churches)
- Medieval French: romanticising damsels (troubadors/trouviers) and fearless knights rescuing them (Chansons des Gestes), architecture (Gothic churches, stained glass windows)
- Chinese: silk, paper, tea, gunpowder, lacquer, porcelain
- Amerindians: tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, chocolate, maize, etc.
- Renaissance Italians (mostly Florentine): realistic painting, architecture, literature, banks, bills of exchange, promissory notes, double-entry bookkeeping
- Renaissance Flemish/Dutch: oil painting
- Renaissance English: Anglican schism
- Renaissance Portuguese: long-range sea-faring
- Renaissance Germans: Protestant schism, music
- Late Renaissance English: literature and theatre (Shakespeare, Marlowe, etc.),  overthrowing the ruling monarchy and beheading the King (Cromwell) 
- XVII century Italians: the opera (Claudio Monteverdi), chiaroscuro painting (Caravaggio)
- XVIII century Americans: first modern democratic republic, first military submarine
- XVIII century French: Age of Enlightenment (Encyclopédie), overthrowing the ruling monarchy and beheading the King AND Queen AND untold others, perfumes, punched-card textile looms
- XVIII-XIX century Italians: music
- XVIII-XIX century Germans: philosophy, music, archeology, chemistry
- XVIII-XIX century British: ruling the seas, science (e.g. Darwin), blood transfusions
- XIX  century French: literature, painting, vaccines
- XIX century British: power looms, steam engine, the Industrial Revolution, penicillin, information technology (Charles Babbage's punched cards)
- XIX century Russians: literature, music, information technology (Semen Nikolaevich Korsakov's punched cards)
- XIX century Swiss: the Red Cross
- XIX century Italians: telephone (A. Meucci)
- XIX century Americans: electric lamp (T.A. Edison), information technology (Herman Hollerith's punched cards)
- XX century Americans: airplane, mass production (H. Ford), movies, comic books, chewing gum, jazz, rock, hot dogs, hamburgers, Coca/Pepsi Cola, supermarkets & megastores, polio vaccine, helping win a couple of World Wars
- XX century British: radar, computer, structure of DNA
- XX century French: haute-couture & prêt-à-porter fashion
- XX century Italians: prêt-à-porter fashion, design, Mediterranean diet

I think it turns out that we are a mixture of all the above .

[mendeleyev]

The English: do you give them credit for literally ruling the Globe at one time?

Egyptians: regardless of accuracy, the black culture in North America gives Egypt credit for most modern science, math, medicine and art.

[Gator]

Sandro,
 
Yes, Europeans contributed much to civilization.  However, you are omitting much from outside Europe. 
 
First, I suggest you read about Egyptian culture.  In having built the pyramids 4600 years ago, Egyptians had already advanced mathematics, architecture and construction.  For example, the column is the centerpiece of classic architecture advanced by the Greeks, yet the Greeks first learned about columns from Egyptians.

The ancient papyrus show medicine, agriculture, etc.  This could go on and on. 

[Gator]

And you forgot foods.  Coffee from Ethiopia, chocolate from Central America, wine from Persia and Caucasus, potato from the Andes, rice from Asia, ....In fact, the history of food probably shows very little originating in Europe except cheese and pilsner beer.   

Edit - Upon a second reading I see that you had included foods.  My apology.


I noticed you neglected to include under China the production of porcelain (aka china). The Chinese protected for over a thousand years the trade secret for production of porcelain.

[Slumba]

If nothing else, the Egyptians gave us the pyramid structure, which is the basis of all modern finance 

[GQBlues]

XIX Century Italy - The modern method of communication - The telephone (though credit went to Mr. Bell)

XX Century NA - Air travel.

XX Century Russia - Rocket-powered engine. (though credited to an American )

XX Century Russia - Blood Science.

I was reading the evolution of the steam engine - likely one of the most significant invention of all time if you consider that even today, steam-driven engines can still be found most everywhere driving/producing what we rely on everyday, electricity.

[SANDRO43]

Pyramids: I doubt they were an original Egyptian invention - although they built them on a grander scale than anybody else: earlier/at the same time/later the Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites, Akkadians, and Assyrians built similar structures, the ziggurats.

CAD rendering of Sialk's largest ziggurat based on archeological evidence.

Djoser/Zoser step pyramid (27th century BC)

Columns: again possibly not an original Egyptian invention.

All significant Iron Age civilizations of the Near East and Mediterranean made some use of columns.

Porcelain: yes, an important omission on my part.

The English: do you give them credit for literally ruling the Globe at one time?

The Spaniards also did that in the XVIth-XVIIth centuries. The Brits were forerunners of an ingenious use of an existing technology (sailing ships) for political/military influence, as later were aircraft, rockets, etc.

Egyptians: regardless of accuracy, the black culture in North America gives Egypt credit for most modern science, math, medicine and art.

Again most of these were common in the area, except for their art that had no later followers, hence no contribution made. I'll concede one item, though: the eyeliner .

[SANDRO43]

XIX Century Italy - The modern method of communication - The telephone (though credit went to Mr. Bell)
XX Century NA - Air travel.

Correct.

XX Century Russia - Rocket-powered engine. (though credited to an American )

A possible Indian predecessor: Tipu Sultan (1750–1799), a.k.a. the Tiger of Mysore .

Rocket engines were also brought in use by Tippu Sultan, the king of Mysore. These rockets could be of various sizes, but usually consisted of a tube of soft hammered iron about 8 in (20 cm) long and 1 1⁄2–3 in (3.8–7.6 cm) diameter, closed at one end and strapped to a shaft of bamboo about 4 ft (120 cm) long. The iron tube acted as a combustion chamber and contained well packed black powder propellant. A rocket carrying about one pound of powder could travel almost 1,000 yards (910 m). These 'rockets', fitted with swords used to travel long distance, several meters above in air before coming down with swords edges facing the enemy. These rockets were used against British empire very effectively.

XX Century Russia - Blood Science.

Hematology?

I was reading the evolution of the steam engine - likely one of the most significant invention of all time if you consider that even today, steam-driven engines can still be found most everywhere driving/producing what we rely on everyday, electricity.

Covered. The discovery of electricity, however, is hard to attribute to a single country.

[GQBlues]

...A possible Indian predecessor: Tipu Sultan (1750–1799), a.k.a. the Tiger of Mysore .

Dunno Sandro. I understand it is cited as such on your info-page, but I'm making a distinction between rocket and rocket-engine. I think Tipu would have to take a backseat to the XIII Century Chinese as I thought right around 1250 AD when the Chinese first introduced the Rocket as a weapon.

...Hematology?..

Yes I was being vague Sandro as there are various branches of blood science, its knowledge and innovations alike. But what I referred to was a fairly controversial segment of hematology and occurred right around the period between the two wars. The greater majority of casualty during war times are deaths not directly resulting from actual fighting, but rather indirectly due to blood-loss related causes.

I read in a journal a while back where it directly credited the Russians, partnering with the Canadians, for its particular life-saving usage during war time, but acknowledgment seem to be scarce for some reason, and instead had largely given the credit to the US due in large part, and in the context of the program we know as 'Blood for Britain'. To me, that was more of the storage/transport as oppose to 'inception', which I personally give credit to the Rooskies and in small parts, the Canadians.

Here's a pretty good link. It's fairly concise, complete with timeline for various stages of blood science. But even in this link, it barely gives credit to the Russians. But - a good source of information nonetheless, IMO.


Red Gold: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/redgold/basics/bloodprograms3.html



BTW- How come no credit or recognition for the Mayans of Mexico for the modern day calendar, and in large dose - astronomy?

[SANDRO43]

BTW- How come no credit or recognition for the Mayans of Mexico for the modern day calendar, and in large dose - astronomy?

Because they did not influence Western science as other cultures did - too late: the Mayan glyphs were finally decoded only some 30+ years ago, after centuries of fruitless attempts. Below is a fascinating, very readable account of the daunting feat:

(published 1992, revised 1999)

Our current sun-based calendar (Gregorian) resulted from a 1582 papal reform (10 years before Columbus's first trip) of the previous Julian calendar (introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC).

Other cultures/religions (e.g. Jewish, Arabic) still use a moon-based calendar, seriously out of step with ours seasonally.

[GQBlues]

Will the discovery of penicillin be significant enough to add to the British contribution, or the Germans for aspirin for that matter?

[SANDRO43]

Will the discovery of penicillin be significant enough to add to the British contribution,

Already there - yes, the world's 1st antibiotic drug.

or the Germans for aspirin for that matter?

Don't know. Despite its universal usage, was it a major pharmacological advancement ? I'd also have to add sulpha drugs, etc.etc. but I don't want to go into too much detail.

[GQBlues]

Quantum Physics, Sandro?

[ghost of moon goddess]

In having built the pyramids 4600 years ago, Egyptians had already advanced mathematics, architecture and construction. 
....

Plus, they are believed to be the first to use the composite technology in brick-making. The Egyptians invented the first composite brick – it was made of clay or mud mixed with chopped straw, giving the building blocks more strength.

[SANDRO43]

Quantum Physics, Sandro?

Hard to attribute to any single culture, given the following list of its 'founders':

Bell · Bogolyubov · Bohm · Bohr · Born · Bose · de Broglie · Compton · Dirac · Dyson · Davisson · Debye · Ehrenfest · Einstein · Everett · Fock · Fermi · Feynman · Hertz · Heisenberg · Hilbert · Jordan · Kusch · Kramers · Lamb · Laue · Moseley · Millikan · von Neumann · Pauli · Planck · Raman · Rydberg · Salam · Schrödinger · Sommerfeld · Thomson · Tomonaga · Ward · Wien · Wigner · Zeeman

[SANDRO43]

Plus, they are believed to be the first to use the composite technology in brick-making. The Egyptians invented the first composite brick – it was made of clay or mud mixed with chopped straw, giving the building blocks more strength.

OK, I'll add adobe to Egyptian contributions , given its proven etymology .

The word adobe  has existed for around 4,000 years, with relatively little change in either pronunciation or meaning. The word can be traced from the Middle Egyptian (c. 2000 BC) word dj-b-t "mud [i.e., sun-dried] brick." As Middle Egyptian evolved into Late Egyptian, Demotic, and finally Coptic (c. 600 BC), dj-b-t became tobe "[mud] brick." This was borrowed into Arabic as al-tub (الطّوب al "the" + tub "brick") "[mud] brick," which was assimilated into Old Spanish as adobe, still with the meaning "mud brick." English borrowed the word from Spanish in the early 18th century.

[ML]

or the Germans for aspirin for that matter?

German's refined it; but the hippocratic oath guy used the powder from willow trees way back before I was  born in BC.

[TS]

Whatever country or countries invented the car, tv, internet, and cell phone is the greatest.
 
 
 

[SANDRO43]

Whatever country or countries invented the car, tv, internet, and cell phone is the greatest.

Well, as far as TV is concerned, it seems it had many 'fathers' from all over: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV .

[SANDRO43]

German's refined it; but the hippocratic oath guy used the powder from willow trees way back before I was  born in BC.

Yes, its basic component is salicylic acid (from Latin salix, willow tree, from the bark of which the substance used to be obtained) or one of its salts.

[XMan]

Sandro, you mentioned nothing about the influence of ancient alien visitors.   

[ML]

The sighting of alien aircraft and visitors has greatly decreased since the advent of cameras in mobile phones.

[Slumba]

Sandro, you mentioned nothing about the influence of ancient alien visitors.   

That is right, the "vimanas" which describe flying chariots.