Ancient African inventors, many of them women, de-
vised methods and devices for gathering, preserving, and
preparing food (including the mortar and pestle for grind-
ing and pulverizing foods), herbs, and medicines. Th ey cre-
ated devices for carrying both food and infants (oft en at
the same time), including slings for infants. Th ey learned to
use sticks as levers for moving rocks, tree stumps, logs, and
other objects. Th ey created hoes and similar tools for digging
plants and, later, for cultivating the earth for planting, and
they invented one of the world’s fi rst plowshares (the metal
blade of a plow). Th ey learned how to tan and preserve animal
hides for use as clothing and blankets, which they sewed with
needles made of bone and dyed with natural substances such
as henna. Later they learned how to weave and spin fabrics.
Th ey created the fi rst pottery and learned to use kilns to fi re
the pots, which were then used for food storage or carrying
water.
One important adaptation of fi re in ancient Africa took
place some 2,000 years ago in the region around Lake Victo-
ria. Th ere archaeologists have discovered ancient blast fur-
naces used in the production of carbon steel. (Carbon steel
is an alloy of iron and carbon. Iron not alloyed with carbon
remains relatively soft , but the introduction of carbon hard-
ens the metal.) Carbon was introduced into the iron ore by
an ingenious process. First a bowl-shaped hole was dug in the
ground. Th e hole was then lined with soil taken from a ter-
mite mound, and a handle that rose above ground level was
inserted so the steel could be removed. Th e chief innovation
the Africans introduced to existing furnaces was to insert
tubes or blowpipes through the walls of the mound into the
pit. Th ese tubes channeled air into the fi re, creating a blast-
furnace eff ect as the hot air from the fi re rose, sucking air
through the pipes into the fi re. Grasses and reeds were then
burned in the pit, and when the temperature reached a high
enough level, charcoal and iron ore was added. Th e carbon
from the burned grasses and charcoal added carbon to the
iron, resulting in carbon steel. It is estimated that these fur-
naces could achieve a temperature of nearly 3,300 degrees
Fahrenheit. Of course, the ability to produce carbon steel pre-
supposes the existence of mining technologies, and the old-
est-known iron mine in the world, dating back some 43,000
years, has been found in Swaziland.
Ancient Africans invented several systems related to cal-
culation. Th e Yoruba tribe had a number system based on 20,
and the so-called Ishango bone, dating to 8,000 years ago, has
a system of notches that indicates a number system. In East
Africa accurate calendars were developed in the fi rst mil-
lennium b.c.e., and megaliths (vertical stone slabs) enabled
ancient Africans to make accurate observations of star con-
stellations. Ancient Africans also developed water clocks, an
aerodynamic glider, and the game of chess.
In the area of health care, ancient Africans developed
various medicines, including aspirin, a treatment for diar-
rhea, and a smallpox vaccination remarkably similar to the
smallpox vaccine developed by Robert Jenner in the late 18th
century. Cosmetics invented in ancient Africa included eye
shadow to reduce the glare from rivers, similar to the black
patches modern-day footba l l player use to reduce g la re. Ot her
cosmetics were fi ngernail polish, breath fresheners, wigs, po-
mades, perfumes, and various dyes to enhance skin color. To
apply these cosmetics, African women invented the fi rst mir-
rors, made of polished copper.
Th e drum, probably the world’s fi rst musical instrument,
was invented in Africa and used on ceremonial occasions and
for communication. Africans also craft ed seaworthy boats,
and some archaeological evidence suggests that ancient Af-
ricans were able to reach the coasts of the Americas. Petro-
leum, too, was produced around 4000 to 3000 b.c.e. To this
list must be added the invention of civilization itself, for the
Africans were the fi rst to live in human communities that
survived, grew, and spread in large part by passing their in-
ventions down to future generations.EGYPT
BY WILLIAM H. PECK
Th e inventions of the ancient Egyptians include ideas and
innovations both great and small. One important innova-
tion that still aff ects us today is the observation of the 365-
day solar year. Th e Egyptians divided the year into 360
days—three seasons of 120 days, 12 months of 30 days—and
added fi ve days dedicated to the gods to complete the cycle.
Th ey also added the rough equivalent of a leap year to make
the calendar correspond more closely with their observa-
tions of the sun. Th ey divided the day into 12 hours of day-
light and 12 of darkness, giving us the 24-hour division we
also still use.
Th e Egyptians produced the fi rst paper, which they
manufactured from the papyrus plant, in contrast to the clay
tablets used by the ancient Mesopotamians. With the intro-
duction of papyrus as a convenient writing surface that was
fl exible and portable, they also developed the inks necessary
for writing. Papyrus made possible a giant step forward in the
creation and preservation of documents of all kinds.
With the use of papyrus, one of the most important in-
ventions sometimes credited to the ancient Egyptians was the
ability to make meaningful signs that could be understood to
record sounds and ideas—a written form of language. His-
torians debate whether the Egyptians or the Sumerians in
Mesopotamia came up with the idea fi rst. Recent discoveries
at Aswan in the south have led some scholars to reassert the
idea that writing was fi rst invented in Egypt. Not everyone
agrees with this. In any case, before 3000 b.c.e. a method of
recording lists of foodstuff s or other objects began to be de-
veloped in Egypt.
As with many other early written languages (such as
Sumerian, Chinese, and Mayan), the fi rst stages were essen-
tially pictographs, pictures that stood for things. When this
method was extended to convey ideas as well as objects, it was
necessary to use pictures as phonograms, signs that conveyed594 inventions: Egypt