STAS 111: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
February 7, 2023 | Week 3 | Eleonor Trinidad
ANCIENT TIMES
1 Sumerian Civilization
2 Babylonian Civilization
3 Egyptian Civilization
4 Greek Civilization
5 Roman Civilization
6 Arabic/Islamic Civilization
7 Chinese Civilization
8 Indus-Hindu Civilization
9 Persian Civilization
SUMERIAN CIVILIZATIONS
• Significant Contributions
o Cuneiform – a set of word pictures depicted in
symbols made of triangular marks.
o Sexagesimal – using the number 60 as base, system
of counting and a form of place notation.
o Ziggurats – Mountain of god, served as the sacred
place of their chief god
o Potter’s wheel.
o Wheeled vehicle made of solid wooden wheels on
axles now regarded as the greatest mechanical
invention of all time.
o Materia medica – made up of assorted botanical,
zoological and mineralogical ingredients.
o seed plow
o sail boat
o intricate system of canals, dikes and reservoir.
o the City of Uruk – a great wonder not only because it
is considered to be the first true city in the world
o Divided the circle into 360 degrees.
o Developed advances mathematical functions to
permit accurately plot and forecast.
o Zodiacal map of Sumer was used for practical
mathematical and observational purposes.
o Code of Ur-NAmmu – the oldest surviving law in the
world. It is the earliest existing legal text
o Fabrication of copper
BABYLOYNIAN CIVILIZATION
• Babylonia – ancient region bordering the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers (Southern Iraq)
o Nebuchadnezzar ordered the construction of the
famous “Hanging Gardens of Babylon” and the Isthar
Gate.
o They adopted the Sumerian sexagesimal system of
counting in units, Ziggurat and cuneiform.
o Their measurements made use of fractions, squares
and square roots.
o book-keeping, a simple but adequate system of
double-entry accounting.
o Zodiac signs, concept of horoscope
o Prediction of solar and lunar eclipses.
o Jewelry making originated from the Babylonians
o Code of Hammurabi
o The Babylonian Map of the World- first map
o Astrology, the science of studying the position of
celestial bodies.
SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY | HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS
HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATIONS
• Egypt – located in the Northeastern part of the African
continent, a desert country thriving on an agricultural
economy.
o The Egyptian writing was in the form of pictorial
symbols known as hieroglyphics, representing
individual objects or actions.
o They wrote with ink and brushes on paper made of
papyrus reeds.
o Ancient Egyptians studies the heavens to record time,
calculate distances/directions, forecast the seasons
and predict annual flooding of the Nile river.
o The earliest Egyptian calenda was based on their
observations of the regular appearance and
disappearance of Sirius the brightest star in their
horizon which coincide with the annual rise and fall of
the Nileriver.
o Another calendar was based on the phases of the
moon, consisting of 29 and ½ days.
o The first 365-day calendar was possibly devised by
IMHOTEP.
o They calculated the time by means of water clock
– a conical earthen vessel with hours equally marked
off on the inside and spout at the bottom.
o Nobles, men and women wore wigs, they used a
variety of preparations for the hair such as henna.
o They used tweezers and razors to remove unwanted
body hair.
o Both sexes wore jewelries, sandals, perfume and
cosmetics-eye make-up and Kohl around the eyes to
prevent or even cure eye diseases.
o They built pyramids such as Pyramid of Sakkara as
Zoser’s tomb and memorial and Pyramid of
o Khufu or Cheofs and Great sphinx- a stone statue
with a king;s head and a lion’s boy to guard the
pharaoh’s tomb
o The ancient Egyptians knowledge of human anatomy,
physiology and medical plants enabled them to
master the art and science of embalming the dead.
o From the Hyksos, they learned military technology
and system- horse driven light war chariots manned
by warriors armed with bows, bronze swords and
lances.
o The Egyptians invented and used many simple
machines such as ramp and lever, to aid construction
processes.
o They used rope trusses to stiffen the beam of ships
o In Hellenistic Egypt, lighthouse technology was
developed, the most famous example being the
o Lighthouse of Alexandria – a port for the ships that
traded the goods manufactured in Egypt or imported
in Egypt.
o Library of Alexandria
o Obelisks and pillars
GREEK CIVILIZATION
• Greece – is an archipelago in the Southeastern part of
Europe.
o Known as the birthplace of western philosophy.
o Some of the major achievements of the Greeks
include in-depth works on philosophy and
mathematics.
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STAS 111: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
February 7, 2023 | Week 3 | Eleonor Trinidad
GREEK CIVILIZATION
o Their wise men were the first to systematically
separate scientific ideas from superstition and
stressed the logical development of general principles
or theories about natural phenomena.
o Transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age
o They designed various mathematical models and
mechanical systems to explain the planetary motions
and mechanical systems to explain the planetary
positions and movements on geometrical
determinations and logical deductions.
o Ancient Greeks invented the alarm clock- used large
complicated mechanisms to time the alarm.
o They made use of water (or sometimes small stones
or sand). That dropped into drums which sounded the
alarm.
o Watermills were also considered as one of the most
important contributions of the Greek civilization to the
world. They were commonly used in agricultural
processes like milling of grains which was a
necessary form of food processing.
o Greek Philosophers
o Galen made the first steps for the advancement of the
science of anatomy.
o Hippocrates – “Father of Greek Medicine”
o First to regard medicine as a science apart from
religion.
o He taught that diseases have natural causes and that
somehow the human body is capable of healing or
repairing itself.
o According to Empedocles nature was a mixture of
four elements: earth, fire, air and water.
o Thales of Miletus- Father of Philosophy, taught that
nature was composed of or convertible into water.
o Anaxagoras – argued that matter was composed
of countless tiny particles, each made of dominant
substances such as water mixed with other random
substances.
o Aristotle – proved the importance of critical
observation and systematic means to identify and
o classify organisms.
o Thales, Phythagoras, Euclid – perfected geometry,
as a single logical system.
o Archimedes – performed experiments which led him
to discover the laws of lever and the pulley.
o invented the science of hydrostatics- measurement
and use of water-power.
o made planetarium powered by water to demonstrate
the movements of the sun and planets around the
stationary earth.
o discovered the concept of gravity
o Ptolemy – wrote the Almagest, wherein he
presented his ideas and summarized those of the
earlier Greek astronomers about the universe.
o postulated the geocentric theory of the universe.
ROMAN CIVILIZATION
• The Roman Empire was perceived to be the strongest
political and social entity in the west.
• Considered to be the cradle of politics and governance.
• One of the major contributions of the Romans is the
newspaper- Gazettes-contained announcements of the
Roman Empire to the people, made metal or stone tablets
and then publicly displayed.
SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY | HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS
HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS
• The ancient Roman Empire was able to produce the first
books or codex.
• They introduced the Roman numeral.
• They constructed the Pantheon as one of the world’s
greatest domed buildings and Colosseum,
• Rome’s stage for individual gladiatorial contest which held
50,000 spectators.
• Chariot races and gladiatorial fights were held at Rome’s
principal stadium, the Circus Maximus, which
accommodated some 300,000 people.
• Roman government were able to implement major projects
such as large churches (cathedrals and basilicas),
aqueducts, amphitheaters and even residential houses.
• Vitruvius first described the odometer as being used or
measuring distance around 27BC, but evidence points
towards Archimedes of Syracuse as its inventor.
• Anaximander was one of the first pioneer cartographers to
create a map of the world.
• Olympics were dedicated to the Olympian Gods.
ARABIC AND ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION
• Arabia – is a rocky peninsula in Southwestern Asia.
o The most influential Muslim intellectual contribution to
the modern world was their synthesis of the scientific
and technological knowledge they learned from
and transmitted to the various cultures they
encountered.
o They introduced the Arabic system of numbers
o The Arabs interest in the pseudoscience of
alchemy encouraged them to mix and manipulate
chemical elements and conduct experiments to
transform base metals into gold.
o They were the first to use glass lens for magnification
o First to manufacture the black powder
o They produced the first gun- a bamboo tube
reinforced with iron that used a charge of black
powder to shoot an arrow.
CHINESE CIVILIZATION
• It is considered to be the oldest civilization in Asia.
• It is also known as the middle kingdom, located on the far
east of Asia.
o People learned the technology of silk production
o The outstanding contribution of the Shang included
the creation of magnificent bronze vessels, discovery
of lacquer, the development of the horse-drawn war
chariots and the first known Chinese writing which
was discovered incised on flat shoulder bones of
cattle or on tortoises shells called “oracle bone”.
o Chopsticks came into use.
o They invented the escapement, the basic device used
to regulate clocks.
o They constructed the Great Wall of China and the
great palace of the first emperor.
o The Chinese had one of the most advanced
systems of pharmacology – discovery of healing
drugs and herbs.
o They also practice apothecaries and acupuncture-
was used to treat illnesses or pain by pricking the
patient’s body with needles at points believed to
be connected with the visceral organs causing the
pain.
o They invented the “earthquake weathercock” to detect
earthquake occurrence
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STAS 111: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
February 7, 2023 | Week 3 | Eleonor Trinidad
CHINESE CIVILIZATION
o The use of toilet paper was also traced in China back
to the sixth century.
o Development of calligraphy, water color, painting and
block printing were invented.
o The first movable type printer made form pottery was
developed by Pi Sheng.
o Chinese had an outstanding contributions such as the
invention of gunpowder, a naturally magnetic iron ore
used to magnetize a floating needle (prototype of the
magnetic needle in compass) to indicate location, the
use of coal as fuel, water wheel, the wheelbarrow,
and the flexible bamboo pole that speedily enchanted
the transport of heavy loads, the technology of copper
coinage, the artistry of wallpaper and porcelain.
o Tea production was developed.
INDUS-HINDU CIVILIZATION
• India – mainly in the Northwestern regions of South Asia.
o Considered the most remarkable accomplishment
of the Indus civilization was the construction layout
of its cities which featured water wells (that piped
water supply) bathrooms and wastepipe or drains in
nearly every house.
o They excelled particularly in medicine and
mathematics.
o Traditional Indian medication had a very extensive
pharmacopoeia and varieties of herbal remedies
and drugs.
o Indian surgeons successfully performed various
operations like repair of broken limbs, complicated
bone setting, amputation, plastic surgery and
Caesarian section.
o They introduced the negative and positive quantities,
square and cube roots, quadratic equations,
mathematical implications of zero and infinity and
value of pi up to nine decimal places.
o They also developed the steps in sine functions,
spherical geometry and calculus
o Iron pillar of Delhi-the world’s first iron pillar.
o Stupa was used as commemorative monument
associated with storing sacred relics.
o Great technology was needed in the fields of
weaponry, navigation, mass food and farm
production, and health.
PERSIAN CIVILIZATION
• Introduction of a uniform system of gold and silver
coinage.
• The first regular postal system in the world
• Taxation system, an important component of the
Achaemenid state administration.
• Qanat is a gently sloping underground channel that carries
water from an aquifer or water well to houses and fields. It
is used for drinking water and irrigation of crops.
• Sulfuric acid was first discovered by Abu Bakr Muhammad
Ibn Jakarta al-Razi.
SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY | HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS
HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS
MEDIEVAL TIMES
• The period from 450A.D to 1450 A.D
• is generally known as the period of history between
Ancient Times and Modern Times.
• This is usually divided into the so called Dark Ages and
the High Middle Ages.
• The Age of Exploration.
• The start of the middle ages was marked by massive
invasions and migrations.
• The Islamic world had become a civilization of
colossal expansive and had imposed a unity of
religion and culture on much of southwest Asia and North
Africa.
• Technological advances during the Middle Ages
include the following:
o Printing press – After the Chinese, Johann
Gutenberg developed a more reliable and way of
printing using a cast type. Gutenberg utilized wooden
machines that extracted juices from fruits, attached to
them a metal impression of the letters, and pressed
firmly the cast metal into a piece of paper, which then
made an extract impression on paper.
o Gunpowder and Canon – appeared around the 9th
century A.D, followed by vigorous development of
explosive weapons from 1040 A.D about three
centuries before it appeared in Europe. From fire-
lance using a rocket combination and bamboo tube as
close combat weapon, all barrier guns and cannon
were constructed at the beginning of the 12th century
A.D.
o Water mill – it was an integral part of the feudal
economy. By using suitable mechanism, its rotary
motion could be converted to reciprocal motion
making it a source of general power.
o Windmill was used primarily for blowing bellows, filling
cloth, forging iron, sawing, weaving and threshing.
o Mechanical clock – tells time using gears driven by
weights that pull the gears at the right pace.
o Horse Harness and Horse shoe allowed the horse to
increase its” attractive” effort five times and for
protection. This innovation came from the 7th century
A.D china reaching Europe early in the eleventh
century, resulting in the horse taking the place of oxen
at the plough. In addition, the introduction of the
horses’ modes put the horse on the road for pack and
wagon.
MEDIEVAL TIMES
o Distillation and Alcohol – the first preparation of
strong spirits of wine was made in Europe in the 12th
century. As the distillation of perfumes and oil was
already known, alcohol was probably produced by
accident in the course of some medical preparation.
o Universities and Scholastics- By the twelfth century,
these schools swelled to become universities with set
of courses and teaching the seven liberal arts,
philosophy and theology. The first and most famous
of these was the University of Paris in 1160. In the
eleventh century A.D, medical school had been
existence in Salermo.
o Church, medieval towns, Iron-chain suspension
bridges, segmental arch structures were built.
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STAS 111: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
February 7, 2023 | Week 3 | Eleonor Trinidad
MEDIEVAL TIMES
o Canon of Medicine – authored by Avicenna, an Arab
physician. It contained a good summary of
o the period’s medical knowledge and accurate
descriptions of meningitis, tetanus and other
diseases.
o War Weapons such as cross bows, long bows
was developed so that they could attack the
enemies at long ranges, keeping themselves safe
with the protection of wall and fortresses.
o Soldiers wear body armors and chainmail to protect
themselves.
o Lenses with spectacles – The discovery of
lenses resulted in the invention of spectacles in
Italy around 1350 A.D. This gave impetus to the
study of light or optics. Grosseteste, Dietrich and
o Roger Bacon explained how a lens could focus
light rays and magnify things. The demand for
spectacles gave rise to lens grinding/trading and
spectacle-makers.
o The sternpost rudder apparently came also from
China. This led to the development of the sail that
could be adjusted such that ship voyages could be
made in rougher weather. ariner’s Magnetic
Compass- the ability of a natural magnet to show
direction was known o the
o Chinese several centuries ago or about sixth century
A.D before it passed to the West or Europe.
o Flying Buttress – one of the architectural
innovations associated with Gothic churches. This
allowed buildings to have much higher ceilings and
larger windows.
o Library of Malatesta Novello in Cesena –
considered to be first ever public library in the world.
o Coffee House became popular in Arabic and Ottoman
lands.
RENAISSANCE 14TH CENTURY – 16TH CENTURY
• The period of rebirth
• Beginning of the cultural movement
• Rediscovery of ancient texts was accelerated after the fall
of Constantinople in 1453.
• Technology for printing books was regarded as the
most important invention that facilitated dissemination of
knowledge and new ideas.
• Paracelsus – an alchemist and physician of the
Renaissance. Medieval alchemists worked with two main
elements: Sulphur and mercury.
• The astronomy was based on geocentric model (earth-
centered) described by Claudius Ptolemy.
RENAISSANCE 14TH CENTURY – 16TH CENTURY
• Nicolas Copernicus published “On the Revolutions of the
Heavenly Spheres”.
• Andreas Vesalius described the anatomy of the
brain’s function. He wrote the book “On the
• Fabric of the Human Body”.
SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY | HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS
HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS
MODERN TIMES
• The booming world population during the nineteenth
century onwards demanded that more goods be produced
at a faster rate. People needed efficient means of
transportation to trade more goods and cover a larger
distance. Machines that required animals to operate must
thus be upgraded. Faster and easier means to
communicate and compute should be developed to
established connections between and among nations. All
these needs resulted in the development of industries.
However, due to massive industrialization, the modern
times a faced more complicated problems. Food
processing and medicine posed some of the bigger
challenges since health was of great concern.
o Pasteurization – invented by Louis Pasteur, a French
biologist, microbiologist and chemist, the process of
heating dairy products to kill the harmful bacteria that
allow them to spoil faster.
o Petroleum Refinery – is widely used in powering
automobiles, factories, and power plants. Kerosene
was referred to as the “illuminating oil” because it was
used at first to provide lighting homes. It was invented
by Samuel M. Kier.
o Telephone – invented by Alexander Graham Bell, a
way to easily maintain connection and communication
with each other in real time.
o Calculator – a faster way to compute more
complicated equations.
o Electricity – the heart of many modern technologies,
is the set of physical phenomena associated with
presence and motion of electric charge.
o Electric power – where electric current is used to
energize equipment.
o Electronics – which deals with electrical circuits that
involve active electrical components such as vacuum
tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and
associated passive interconnection technologies.
o Smartwatches – a variation of regular watches but
coming with a whole bunch of features as your
smartphone.
o Robotics – is an interdisciplinary branch of
engineering and science that includes mechanical
engineering, electronics engineering, computer
science and others. It deals with the design,
construction, operation and use of robots, as well as
computer systems for their control, sensory feedback
and information processing.
o Incandescent light bulb – is an electric light with a
wire filament heated to such a high temperature that it
glows with visible light (incandescence). It is widely
used in household and commercial lighting, for
portable lighting such as table lamps, car headlamps
and flashlights and for decorative and advertising
lighting.
o Airplane – is a powered fixed-wing aircraft that is
propelled by thrust from a jet engine, propeller or
rocket engine. The Wright brothers invented and flew
the first airplane in 1903, recognized as “the first
sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered
flight. It is used to transport parcels as well as people
to other side of the world in less than a day or weeks.
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STAS 111: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
February 7, 2023 | Week 3 | Eleonor Trinidad
MODERN TIMES
o Computer –is a device that can be instructed to carry
out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations
automatically via computer programming. It is also
used as control systems for a wide variety of industrial
and consumer devices. Charles Babbage, an English
mechanical engineer and polymath, originated the
concept of a programmable computer.
o Universal Serial Bus (USB) flash drive – also
known as thumb drive pen, pen drive, gig stick, flash
stick, jump drive, disk key, disk on key- is a data
storage device that includes flash memory with an
integrated USB interface.
o Cellphone or mobile phone – a device that has at
least the same functions of a standard wired
telephone but is smaller and more mobile.
o Internet – is the global system of interconnected
computer networks that use the internet protocol suite
(TCP/IP) to link devices worldwide. It carries a vast
range of information resources and services such as
the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications
of the World Wide Web (WWW). Electronic mail,
telephony and file sharing.
o Television – is a telecommunication medium used for
transmitting moving images in monochrome (black
and white) or in color, and in two or three dimensions
and sound. It is a mass medium for advertising,
entertainment and news.
o Veterinary medicine was for the first time, truly
separated from human medicine in 1761, when
French Veterinarian Claude Bourgelat founded the
world’s first veterinary school in Lyon, France
o Penicillin – discovered by Alexander Fleming in
September 1928, marks the start of modern
antibiotics.
o Genomics – is an interdisciplinary field of science
focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping
and editing of genomes- is an organism’s complete
set of DNA, including all of its genes.
o Biotechnology – is the broad area of science
involving living systems and organisms to develop or
make products, or any technological application that
uses biological systems, living organisms or
derivatives thereof, to make or modify products for
specific use.
o Automobile (car) – is a wheeled motor vehicle used
for transportation
o Nuclear weapon – is an explosive device that derives
its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either
fission or from a combination of fission and fusion
reactions.
o Nuclear power – is the use of nuclear reactions that
release nuclear energy to generate heat, which most
frequently is then used in steam turbines to produce
electricity in a nuclear power plant.
o Satellites – is an artificial object which has been
intentionally placed into orbit. They are used for many
purposes such as military and civilian Earth
observation, telecommunication, navigation, weather
forecast and space telescopes.
o Vaccine – is a biological preparation that provides
active acquired immunity to a particular disease.
o Telegraphy – is the long distance transmission of
textual or symbolic messages without thephysical
exchange of an object bearing the message.
SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY | HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS
HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS
o Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner – is a
medical imaging technique used in radiology to form
pictures of the anatomy and the physiological
processes of the body in both health and disease.
o Computed tomography (CT) scan – makes use of
computer-processes combinations of many X-ray
measurements taken from different angles to produce
cross-sectional images of specific areas of scanned
object, allowing the user to see the object without
cutting.
o Liquid-crystal display (LCD projector) – is a type of
video projector for displaying video, images or
computer data on a screen or other flat surface.
o Bluetooth – is a wireless technology standard for
exchanging data over short distances from fixed and
mobile devices and building personal area networks.
o Wi-Fi – is a technology for radio wireless local area
networking of devices.
o Printer – is a peripheral device which makes a
persistent human-readable representation of graphics
or text on paper.
o Camera – is an optical instrument for recording or
capturing images, which may be stored locally,
transmitted to another location or both.
o Closed-circuit television (CCTV) – also known as
video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to
transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of
monitors.
o Submarine – is a watercraft capable of independent
operation underwater. It is used in military, marine
science, search-and-rescue and tourism.
o Stethoscope – is an acoustic medical device for
auscultation, or listening to the internal sounds of an
animal or human body.
o Laptop or notebook computer – is a small, portable
personal computer with a “clamshell” form factor
having typically a thin LCD or LED computer screen
mounted on the inside of the upper lid of the
“clamshell” and an alphanumeric keyboard on the
inside of the lower lid.
o Credit card – is a payment card issued to users to
enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods
and services.
o Steam engine – is a heat engine that performs
mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.
o Light Amplification by stimulated emission of
radiation (Laser) – is a device that emits light through
a process of optical amplification based on the
stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation.
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