Inventions: When Was the First....
Control of Fire
The discovery of fire, or, more precisely, the controlled use of fire was, of necessity, one of the earliest of human discoveries. Fire's purposes are multiple, some of which are to add light and heat, to cook plants and animals, to clear forests for planting, to heat-treat stone for making stone tools, to burn clay for ceramic objects
History of Textiles
Textiles--meaning cords, baskets, mats, nets, cloth--were invented at least as long ago as 30,000 years.
Invention of Pottery
Ceramics--the production of vessels and figurines using fired clay--were invented nearly 20,000 years ago in mainland China. How and where did that happen?
Invention of Dentistry
Evidence of dentistry has been identified at a cemetery in the Neolithic site of Mehrgarh, Pakistan, on eleven individuals between 7500 and 9000 years ago.
Invention of Animal Herding
Academics call the invention of herding animals "pastoralism", although there doesn't seem to be anything very pastoral about it!
Invention of Farming
A recent study in Science magazine argues that the innovation of agriculture into central Europe 7000 years ago was accomplished by the adoption of new techniques by the hunter-gatherers living there.
Invention of Wheeled Vehicles
The invention of the wheel to assist transportation was made in Uruk, Mesopotamia during the fourth millennium BC.
Invention of Wine
Wine, an alcoholic beverage made from grapes, was probably first made about 5,500 years ago.
Invention of Shoes
The history of shoes--that is to say, archaeological and paleoanthropological evidence for the earliest use of protective coverings for the human foot--appears to start during the Middle Paleolithic period of approximately 40,000 years ago.
Invention of Domesticated Animals
One crucial human invention that we mustn't forget is that of the domestication of animals. Beginning with dogs some 15,000 years ago, humans have engineered a relationship between hundreds of different species of animals.
Invention of Domesticated Plants
While plant domestication is related to farming, the different stories of how we tamed--and were tamed by--different species of plants are fascinating ones.