التقنية الكيميائية في عصر حجري .. من كيميائي ما قبل التاريخ إلى الفيلسوف الكيميائي

Chemical Technology in the Stone Age.. From Prehistoric Chemist to Chemical Philosopher: Seeds

Chemical Technology in the Stone Age

Current evidence suggests, with some reservations, that modern humans originated in Africa in the form of Cro-Magnon humans about 100,000 years ago BC. Over time, this human replaced the Neanderthals, Dali and Ngandong (1). In terms of anatomy, behavior and language, it can be said that the Cro-Magnon were fully developed 35,000 years ago, such that a Cro-Magnon could learn to fly an airplane and walk next to us in the street without being recognized (2).

The Paleolithic era extends to 8,000 years BC, and the people of that era were nomadic food gatherers who learned to use language, control fire and form tools from stones and bones. There is evidence that during the late Paleolithic period, people cooked food, which could easily be considered the first chemical process. Heat is used in the cooking process to break the chemical bonds in vegetables and muscle fibers and to accomplish a kind of pre-digestion that takes some of the burden off the teeth, stomach and intestines.

It is also known that Paleolithic man cared for the sick and practiced a primitive form of medicine, as evidenced by the presence of skulls with treated wounds. The process of burying various tools and foods with the bodies of the dead was interpreted on a religious basis, but it is just as easy to assume that it was an early attempt to implement some hygiene measures. Burying the possessions of the deceased, especially the last things he ate, can be an effective measure to prevent the spread of disease. It is difficult to verify that Paleolithic man possessed medicinal herbs or a stock of medicines, because herbs - unlike things made of stone - decay and there is no evidence of their use. However, it has been shown in our time that isolated civilizations still practice what can be called Stone Age technology. These civilizations know herbs and use them as disinfectants and painkillers. The preparation of materials for use in medicine is a form of chemistry that we find in every age of our history.

Cave paintings dating back 20,000 years - probably preserved by salts deposited from rainwater that seeped into the cave - show that the Cro-Magnons of the Paleolithic era practiced the art of drawing. This art may have been in the form of secret magic that imitated desired results in order to achieve these results (3), because game animals and hunting successes were among the subjects of this art, as were full-bodied women with large breasts.

The materials used to create the drawings were charcoal and pointed pieces of colored clay. The red color of the clay comes from mercury sulphide (cinnabar), the red and yellow from various iron oxides, and the brown color from manganese oxide. The plates next to the drawings show that the pigments were mixed with fat for ease of use.

The Mesolithic period began with the end of the last Ice Age, about 8,000 years BC. It is said that people of that era tamed dogs and carved tree trunks to make crude boats. They also made the first pottery by baking clay in the sun, a chemical process in which the semi-liquid, deadly silicates are transformed into a tightly bonded network. Pottery appeared in Japan as early as 10,000 BC, while in the Americas it appeared around 5,000 BC.

The Mesolithic man used drawing, and as two human skulls painted with cinnabar found in graves dating back to that era show, drawing and coloring were used to decorate the human body.

Cinnabar is a deep red color and red skulls are believed to symbolize blood or other secret, deeply meaningful lusters. But cinnabar also works as an effective remedy against lice and nits - which inhabit the hair - and covering the skull with cinnabar may have been a gesture of love from some friends or relatives wishing to bestow some peace and comfort on the deceased after his death (4).

The period from 6,000 to 3,000 years BC is considered the New Stone Age and during this period people learned to make food and start fire from friction in what may have been the first controlled chemical reaction.

They domesticated animals and invented the plough, the wheel and the sail and learned how to spin, weave and make fire pottery kilns. Between the years 6,000 and 7,000 BC. A new material was formed by hammering, which was copper (5). This material enabled people to make new tools that helped - with the development of agriculture - in the growth of agricultural societies in fixed locations. Many nomadic fruit gatherers became workers on the land. At some point, around 4,000 years BC, civilization emerged.