Major innovations in materials technology

BC

  • 28,000 BC – People wear beads, bracelets, and pendants
  • 14,500 BC – First pottery, made by the Jōmon people of Japan.
  • 6th millennium BC – Copper metallurgy is invented and copper is used for ornamentation (see Pločnik article)
  • 2nd millennium BC – Bronze is used for weapons and armor
  • 16th century BC – The Hittites develop crude iron metallurgy
  • 13th century BC – Invention of steel when iron and charcoal are combined properly
  • 10th century BC – Glass production begins in ancient Near East
  • 1st millennium BC – Pewter beginning to be used in China and Egypt
  • 1000 BC – The Phoenicians introduce dyes made from the purple murex.
  • 9th century – Stonepaste ceramics invented in Iraq
  • 900 – Synthesis of ammonium chloride from organic substances described in the works attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (Latin: Geber)
  • 900 – Abū Bakr al-Rāzī describes the preparation of plaster of Paris and metallic antimony

2nd millennium

  • 1000 – Gunpowder is developed in China