Thousands of years ago, when the Pharaohs of Egypt were raising spectacular pyramids on the face of the Earth and the Indus valley civilisation was urbanising on the banks of Saraswati, was science a determining factor in the lives of these brilliant, ancient people? The study of development of sciences prior to the middle ages is called protosciences . In prehistoric periods, knowledge was passed via word of mouth. Pursuit of scientific knowledge was possible only after the development of agriculture, which allowed the possibility of surplus food, which gave the early people enough time to search for answers to the most pressing natural phenomena.

Egyptian civilisation One of the most impactful civilisations of the world history made significant contributions to the fields of astronomy, mathematics, geometry and medicine. Geometry was necessary to preserve the layout and ownership of farmland, which was the most important source of food at that time. The 3,4,5 right triangle and other rules of thumb served to represent the rectilinear structures and the post and lintel architecture of Egypt. Papyrus, the writing material which was formed from beaten strips of papyrus plants was the oldest form of paper the world has seen. With it started the tradition of libraries, library of Alexandria was the largest one .[2] The oldest light house technology was a brain child of Hellenistic Egypt of which the most famous example is the Lighthouse of Alexandria (285-247 BC), it had a giant cantilevered hoist which lifted cargo to and fro from ships.The biggest mystery of Egyptian civilisations are their monuments built from stones which would have been impossible to cut and carry to distant locations. One of the theories proposed by Maureen Clemmons was that the ancient Egyptians used kites for work. Ramps have been reported as being widely used in Ancient Egypt. A ramp is an inclined plane, or a plane surface set at an angle (other than a right angle) against a horizontal surface. The inclined plane permits one to overcome a large resistance by applying a relatively small force through a longer distance than the load is to be raised. In civil engineering, the slope (rise to run) is often referred to as a grade or gradient. An inclined plane is one of the commonly-recognized simple machines. Maureen Clemmons subsequently led a team of researchers demonstrating a kite made of natural material and reinforced with shellac (which according to their research pulled with 97% the efficiency of nylon), in a 9 mph wind, would easily pull an average 2-ton pyramid stone up the 1st two courses of a pyramid. [1] Egyptians were the pioneers of neuroscienceof the neurosciences. The Edwin Smith Papyrus is one of the first medical documents still extant, and perhaps the earliest document which attempts to describe and analyse the brain. Moving on to another famous civilisation: The Mesopotamians We have solid evidence that a civilisation as early as 3500BC was an observant civilisation. people began to record observations world through numerical data .A concrete instance of Pythagoras’ law was recorded as early as the 18th century BC— the Mesopotamian cuneiform tablet Plimpton 322 records a number of Pythagorean triplets- (3,4,5) (5,12,13) ...- dated to approximately 1800 BC, over a millennium before Pythagoras.[3] Astronomy was another important scientific pursuit of the Mesopotamians, astronomical periods identified by Mesopotamian scientists are still widely used in Western calendars: the solar year, the lunar month, the seven-day week. Using this data they developed arithmetical methods to compute the changing length of daylight in the course of a year and to predict the appearances and position of the Moon, the planets and the eclipses.Indus valley civilisationThe land of five rivers is a relatively mysterious and unknown civilisation, with their scripts being only recently decoded, they had a huge impact in the fields of astronomy and mathematics. Excavations at Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro and other sites of the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) have uncovered evidence of applied mathematics. The people of the IVC manufactured bricks whose dimensions were in the proportion of 4:2:1, considered favourable for the stability of a brick structure. They used a standardised system of weights based on the ratios: 1/20, 1/10, 1/5, 1/2, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500, with the unit weight equalling approximately 28 g (and approximately equal to the English ounce or Greek uncia). They mass-produced weights in regular geometrical shapes, which included hexahedra, barrels, cones and cylinders, thereby demonstrating knowledge of basic geometry.[5] Indian mathematicians made early contributions to the study of the decimal number system, zero, negative numbers, arithmetic and algebra. In addition, trigonometry, having evolved in the Hellenistic world and having been introduced into ancient India through the translation of Greek works was further advanced in India, and, in particular, the modern definitions of sine and cosine were developed there. These mathematical concepts were transmitted to the Middle East, China, and Europe leading to further developments that now form the foundations of many areas of mathematics. China and far east had huge developments in medicine, like acupuncture and herbal medicine. The first recorded observations of solar eclipses and supernovae were made in China. [6] On July 4, 1054, Chinese astronomers observed a guest star, a supernova, the remnant of which is now called the Crab Nebula. Korean contributions include similar records of meteor showers and eclipses, particularly from 1500-1750 in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty. Among the earliest inventions of far east civilisations were the abacus, the public toilet, and the “shadow clock”. The”Four Great Inventions” of China are among some of the most important technological advances; these were the compass, gunpowder, papermaking, and printing, which were later known in Europe by the end of the Middle Ages. Last but not the least, The Greeks were major contributors of physics, mathematics and every other field of science. Listing their achievements would require another magazine!The preSocratic philosopher Thales, dubbed the “father of science”, was the first to postulate nonsupernatural explanations for natural phenomena such as lightning and earthquakes. Pythagoras of Samos founded the Pythagorean school, which investigated mathematics for its own sake, and was the first to postulate that the Earth is spherical in shape. Subsequently, Plato and Aristotle produced the first systematic discussions of natural philosophy, which did much to shape later investigations of nature. Their development of deductive reasoning was of particular importance and usefulness to later scientific inquiry. The legacy of this period included substantial advances- in factual knowledge, especially in anatomy, zoology, botany, mineralogy, geography, mathematics and astronomy; an awareness of the importance of certain scientific problems, especially those related to the problem of change and its causes- and a recognition of the methodological importance of applying mathematics to natural phenomena and of undertaking empirical research.[7] With this can we conclude to the question proposed above, was science a determining factor in the lives of these brilliant ancient people? Not exactly. It could be argued that many of their discoveries were marvels in engineering and technology, but not pure science per se.. Although some of their observations were what laid the groundwork for several more contemporary scientific ideas, they were nothing but observations and perceived results. The main aim of science is to explain natural observation, not only record them. As the French mathematician Henri Poincaré rightly declared, “science is built up with facts, as a house with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house”. Whatever has been detailed above was just scratching the surface of the brilliance of dead civilisations, but to call it all an excursion in science is a topic still under debate

References

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20070328212434/http://pr.caltech.edu/media/Press_Releases/PR12164.html

2. Europe: A History, p 139. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1996. ISBN 0-19-820171-0

3. Paul Hoffman, The man who loved only numbers: the story of Paul Erdős and the search for mathematical truth, (New York: Hyperion), 1998, p.187. ISBN 0-7868-6362-5

4. A. Aaboe (May 2, 1974). “Scientific Astronomy in Antiquity”. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 276 (1257): 21–42. Bibcode:1974RSPTA.276...21A. doi:10.1098/rsta.1974.0007. JSTOR 74272

5. Sergent, Bernard (1997). Genèse de l’Inde (in French). Paris: Payot. p. 113. ISBN 978-2-228-89116-5.

6. Ancient Chinese Astronomy Archived 2006-02-22 at the Wayback Machine

7. Early Greek Science: Thales to Aristotle, (New York: W. W. Norton, 1970), pp. 144-6.