I'm with you, the more we learn, the more we realize how little we know about scientific progress thousands of years ago.
Take, for example, the alembic. It's an enclosed pot with a spout coming off the top, and it's used for distillation. We're often told that the Arabs invented distillation, but that's simply not so.
As far as I have been able to determine, the oldest known alembics (pot stills) were used by the Indus River culture that built ancient cities like Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro five thousand years ago, three thousand BC. The invention may well be older, but that's the earliest found so far. There's a 5000 year old clay pot still in a museum in Pakistan.
I mentioned yesterday algebra, which the Indians claim they invented at least three thousand years ago. I've also read that it was invented in Southeast Asia earlier than that.
For another example, take wootz. Wootz is the metal they used to make Samurai swords -- all the way East on the Silk Road to Japan, and Damascus swords -- all the way West on the Silk Road. Invented in India a few hundred years BC. Could only be made there, because the ore had special impurities that made the special steel. Alexander the Great had a sword made out of wootz.
Take for example symbolic money, whether made out of writings on paper or ancient clay tablets, perhaps the earliest known symbolic money was used by the Sumerians.
I also agree with you that Buddhism really isn't, strictly speaking, a religion. It's a code of ethics and a prescription for living a good and meaningful life (right action, right livelihood).
BTW, at Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, there are indoor toilets that are 8,000 years old. |
