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Ancient Accomplishments and Later Appearances
One of the many accomplishments of the ancient Egyptians that was passed on to medieval Islam and onto the rest of the world was the base ten numerical system we use today. Though Arabic numerals that look like our numbers were a later achievement, ancient Egyptians had a system of hieroglyphs that had numerical value. First, the symbols stood for pure numbers based on the powers of ten -- so 134 would need one "hundred" symbol, three "ten" symbols, and four "one" symbols. Later the system of places that we use today was developed, and ancient Islam carried this one (O'Connor & Robertson).
Just as important was the passing of pictographic writing from the ancient Shang dynasty in China to the later Tang and Song dynasties. Inscriptions on bronze survive to this day, and the more extensive bamboo records likely led to the later evolution of writing in historic China. This written form of language evolved into the ideographic form of writing known today. Bronze working itself was a major achievement that did not occur in China until the Shang dynasty, one thousand years after it developed in Mesopotamia, and basic metal working allowed later Chinese dynasties rapid progress and superiority, especially militarily (Hooker).
The Sumerians of Mesopotamia were also the first to use iron, They recovered the metal from meteorites and used it for spear tips and ornaments. Later smelting techniques developed in the area to purify the iron, and these spread to Europe via trade routes. By the Middle Ages, large foundries existed for smelting and forging iron into the many things it was used for. Basic trade rules and organization also passed from the Sumerians to Europe; methods of keeping accounts and even early guilds and merchant groups were part of Sumer, and passed West with trade (Airmet).
Works Cited
Airmet. "The History of Iron Working." Accessed 26 July 2009. http://www.airmetmetalworks.com/iron-working-history.html
Hooker, Richard. "Ancient China: The Shang." Accessed 26 July 2009. http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ANCCHINA/SHANG.htm
O'Connor, J.J. And E.F. Robertson. "Egyptian Numerals." Accessed 26 July 2009. http://www.gap-system.org/~history/HistTopics/Egyptian_numerals.html
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