Role of Materials in History

Materials have played such a critical role in the evolution of technology throughout the history of man that historical epochs, such as the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and the Silicon Age have been named for the materials available to mankind at the time. 

During the Neolithic Period (the New Stone Age) humans gradually undertook domestication of animals, cultivation of crops, production of pottery, and building of towns, such as Jericho, by around 7000 BC. Copper tools and carved ivory found in Palestine are believed to date between 5000-4000 BC. Bronze was used by the Canaanites as early as 3000 BC and walls of their towns were fortified with a plaster-like material. 

The ancient Romans made extensive use of concrete. The oldest siuv iving concrete structure is the Temple of Vesta, built in Tivoli during the first century BC. Other examples are the brick-faced concrete walls of the Camp of the Praetorian Guard, built by Sejanus in AD 21-23, the octagonal domed fountain hall of Nero s Golden House (AD 64r- ), and Hadrian s Pantheon of about AD 118-128, whose solid concrete dome is 43.2 m in diameter and 1.5 m thick and is supported by 6 m thick walls of brick-faced concrete. 

Although the French naval architecture and shipbuilding was usually superior to the British during the eighteenth century, their cast iron naval cannons were generally less reliable than those used by the British and the bursting of the French cannons was influential in the 1805 battle of Trafalgar. 

Although the use of iron as a precious metal was known as far back as 3000 BC, its superiority over bronze was not recognized imtil aroimd 1200 BC in Europe and the Middle East. Since charcoal or coke was heated with iron ore to reduce it to iron, the resulting cast iron had excess carbon, which caused it to be brittle. Even so, the widespread production of iron for tools and weapons changed the face of Europe as Asia for the next 2000 years. 

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