Gale - Science and Its Times Vol 01 (2000 BC to AD 699).pdf

Chronology: 2000 B.C. TO A.D. 699
c. 3500 B.C. Beginnings of Sumerian civilization
and pictographic writing that will
evolve into cuneiform; some 400 years
later, hieroglyphics make their first
appearance in Egypt.
c. 3500 B.C. The wheel is invented in
Sumer.
c. 2650 B.C. Half a millennium after the
Pharaoh Menes united Lower and Upper
Egypt, the Old Kingdom begins with the
Third Dynasty, builders of the pyramids.
1200s B.C. Moses leads the nation of
Israel out of Egypt, and writes down the
Ten Commandments and other laws, laying
the foundations of the Judeo-Christian
tradition.
612-538 B.C. A series of empires rise and
fall in the Near East, as Assyria is replaced
by Babylon, which in turn is replaced by
Persia; this is also the period of Israel’s
Babylonian captivity, during which key
Judeo-Christian concepts such as the Messiah
and Satan are forged.
Late 500s-early 400s B.C. Western philosophy
is establishment by Thales of Miletus
and others who follow; Eastern philosophies
and religions are founded by the
Buddha, Confucius, and Lao-tzu;, the
beginnings of the Roman Republic (507
B.C.) and of democracy in Greece (502 B.C.).
c. 500 B.C. Greek philosopher and mathematician
Pythagoras derives his famous
theorem, studies the relationship between
musical pitch and the length of the strings
on an instrument, and establishes the highly
influential idea that the universe can be
fully explained through mathematics.
479 B.C. Battle of Mycale, last in a series
of engagements between Greeks and Persians,
leads to Greek victory. It’s followed
by 75-year Athenian Golden Age; during
this time, Socrates, Pericles, Sophocles,
Herodotus, Hippocrates, and many others
flourish.
c. 400 B.C. Greek physician Hippocrates
and his disciples establish a medical code
of ethics, attribute disease to natural causes,
and use diet and medication to restore
the body.
c. 350 B.C. Aristotle establishes the disciplines
of biology and comparative anatomy,
and makes the first serious attempt to
classify animals.
334-323 B.C. Alexander the Great subdues
more territory in less time than any
conqueror before or since; as a result of
his conquests, Hellenistic civilization
spreads throughout much of the known
world.
c. 310 B.C. Greek explorer Pytheas sets
off on a voyage that takes him to Britain
and Scandinavia.
c. 300 B.C. Euclid writes a geometry textbook
entitled the Elements that codifies all
the known mathematical work to its time;
it’s destined to remain the authority on
mathematics for some 2,200 years.
c. 260 B.C. Aristarchus, a Greek
astronomer, states that the Sun and not
Earth is the center of the universe, and
that the planets revolve around it; unfortu-
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