By Tim Lambert Early Chocolate Chocolate is made from the fruit of the cocoa tree, which is native to Central America. It grows large, round fruits containing seeds or beans, which are used to make chocolate. However, for centuries, people drank chocolate rather than ate it. People in Central America drank chocolate as early as… Continue reading ,A History of Chocolate
Category: Daily Life in the Past
A Brief History of Bread
By Tim Lambert For thousands of years, until the end of the 19th century, bread was ‘the staff of life’ in Western Asia and most of Europe. Indeed, the word bread was sometimes a synonym for food. In Prehistoric Times, people ate flatbread. It’s believed that the Egyptians discovered leavened bread. The staple food of… Continue reading A Brief History of Bread
A Brief History of Coffee
By Tim Lambert The Ethiopians invented coffee. The coffee plant is native to Ethiopia. According to legend, coffee was discovered by an Ethiopian goatherd called Kaldi around the year 800. He noticed that goats who ate certain beans became very lively. So coffee was found. Later, people added hot water to the ground-up beans. Later,… Continue reading A Brief History of Coffee
A Brief History of Dentistry
By Tim Lambert Early Dentistry In Sumer (now Iraq) in 2000 BC, people believed that tooth decay was caused by worms. This strange belief carried on in the West until the 18th century. The Etruscans, an ancient civilization that existed in Italy after 800 BC, were excellent dentists. They made false teeth from human or… Continue reading A Brief History of Dentistry
A Brief History of Easter
By Tim Lambert Nobody is sure where the name Easter came from. The Anglo-Saxon name for April was Eostermunath. But we don’t know why April was called that. According to a Saxon scholar called Bede the month was named after a goddess called Eostre. But no other writer ever mentioned such a goddess and there… Continue reading A Brief History of Easter
A Brief History of Gold
By Tim Lambert Ancient Gold Human beings have always prized gold. The rich have always used it for jewelry and eating and drinking vessels. Since Ancient Times, gold has also been used in dentistry. The earliest evidence of gold comes from 3,600 BC. By about 600 BC, people were making gold coins. Our chemical symbol… Continue reading A Brief History of Gold
A Brief History of Homes
By Tim Lambert Celtic Homes The Celts lived in roundhouses. They were built around a central pole with horizontal poles radiating outwards from it. They rested on vertical poles. Walls were of wattle and daub and roofs were thatched. Around the walls inside the huts were benches, which also doubled up as beds. The Celts… Continue reading A Brief History of Homes
A Brief History of Inventions
By Tim Lambert Inventions in the Ancient World The Egyptians invented the sailing ship about 3,100 BC. The wheel was invented in Sumer (Iraq) in about 3,400 BC. It may have been invented first as the potter’s wheel and later used for transport. The first carts and chariots had solid wheels and oxen or asses… Continue reading A Brief History of Inventions
A Brief History of Libraries
By Tim Lambert Ancient Libraries A library is a room or a building containing a store of books for members to read. There have been libraries since Ancient Times. As early as 2,500 BC, there were libraries in Ancient Iraq with clay tablets as books (dried in the Sun or baked to make them hard).… Continue reading A Brief History of Libraries
A Brief History of Life Expectancy
By Tim Lambert Life Expectancy Before the Industrial Revolution We do not know exactly what average life expectancy at birth was in the past (before the 19th century we can only give rough estimates). However, historians think it was about 35 years in the Middle Ages or the 16th Century. However, that does not mean… Continue reading A Brief History of Life Expectancy