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How did reading and writing evolve? Neuroscience gives us some clues
The Gestalt Principles
Our brain has the ability to respond to certain patterns and try to make sense of them, using the visual perceptions known as Gestalt Principles, helping early scribblers to construct basic formations that stimulated the higher-order visual cortex regions of the brain.
Our brain's response to geometry and patterns started taking shape in creation of symmetrical tools known as Acheulean Tools, about 700,000 years ago.
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Egyptian Senet
One of the earliest known board games, Senet was played in 3100 BC and loved by Queen Nefertari and the Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
Played using a longboard having three rows of ten squar...
The Royal Game Of Ur
- Also known as Twenty Squares, this 4500-year-old game, first unearthed in ancient Mesopotamia, is impressive in its complex rules and intricate design.
- The beautiful game board uses twenty squares and has a narrow bridge in the middle part, was played in Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Turkey and many other ancient civilizations.
- To finish the game as winners, players had to race their opponent to the opposite end of the board, moving pieces according to knucklebone dice rolls.
The Game of Mehen
- Named after the Egyptian serpentine deity, Mehen is also known as the Egyptian Snake Game and was played between 3100 to 2300 BC.
- Six players could simultaneously play this spiral board, each having a piece crafted in the shape of a lion or a sphere.
- The rules of this game are not very clear because it lost its popularity after the decline of Egypt’s Old Kingdom and is hardly found in archaeological records.
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Key Ideas
Inventions Come in Stages
Invention often comes in stages and phases, when existing technology is looked at and mixed with new creative insights, a process that sometimes takes thousands of years.
This makes it hard...
The Wheel And The Axle
- The wheel and the axle didn't suddenly spring up, but were a gradual, phased invention, starting with rollers that reduced friction on the ground, and helped the Egyptians and Mesopotamians move heavy objects.
- The oldest discovered axle was found inside a potter’s wheel in a miniature, toy-like form in Mesopotamia. The fact that the center of the wheel is stationary as compared to the circumference is in fact the greatest mechanical insight ever known.
- Combining the wheel with an axle was genius, leading to the invention of the wagon and other transport vehicles.
The Invention of The Full‑Size Wheeled Vehicle
- The name given to the first full-size wheel, according to paleolinguits, was ‘Kweklos’ which meant ‘to turn’.
- The time of this invention is said to be about 5400 years ago, though the exact location of the invention varies from Russia to Slovenia.
- The inventor was a genius in the conception and craft, as he was able to solve engineering, design and woodworking problems to scale up a toy into a full-size wagon.
- It had a profound effect on the productivity of farmers, and it even helped populations move towards other places that were not close to the river and were thus unexploited.