Since the Industrial Revolution, civilization has been powered primarily by fossil fuels. But what energy sources did ancient civilizations use and how sustainable were they?
How ancient civilizations used solar energy
The most universal and renewable energy source is, of course, the sun. People have been harnessing solar energy for a long time, but not just for growing crops. According to Let It Shine: A 6,000-year story of solar energy by John Perlinexcavations of Neolithic Chinese villages show that villagers built their houses with only one opening facing south to let in the low winter sunlight, and with overhanging thatched roofs to block the high summer sun. You can see that it was. By 4,000 BC, the Chinese were studying the sun’s movement relative to the Earth and refining solar power construction techniques.
of The ancient Greeks made good use of passive solar design In the same way. None other than Socrates was an early proponent of solar-powered architecture, even holding classes to teach students the basics of passive solar design. Perlin writes that 2,500 years ago, most Greek homes were heated by the sun. The ancient Romans also used these principles. When wood became scarce due to deforestation, the Romans published books that taught people how to harness solar energy and help them save what little wood was available.
Ancient cultures used the sun, along with wood, to cook food. At least as far back as Confucius’ time, and perhaps even earlier, Chinese households used concave mirrors to focus sunlight onto campfires to start cooking fires. Pearlin explains that wealthy homes used flues to capture waste heat from cooking fires and redirect it to fireplaces. Kana bed made of materials with excellent heat absorption, such as brick or adobe. When it warms up, Kan It radiates heat all night long, keeping sleepers comfortable.
However, the sun doesn’t do everything for you. Rosen Bailleul-RouchuetEgyptologists at the State University of New York at Brockport point out that wood was the most common fuel source in the ancient world, even though concave mirrors were used in China. However, since Egypt was a desert, wood was not plentiful. Egyptians used limited resources to make charcoal, which is a more efficient way to use wood for heating, she says. Also, when wood was not available, dry vegetable matter such as animal dung and straw was burned as an alternative fuel.
read more: From growing crops to cooking food, ancient civilizations in the form of fire
Early use of wind power generation
Ancient people also used the wind. In ancient China, windmills were used to power water pumps. In ancient Persia, present-day eastern Iran, windmillWe captured a creature called Asbad. Shamala strong wind from the north that blows continuously at certain times of the year and was used to turn the gears used to grind grain.
The Egyptians also understood the wind and used it to navigate the Nile. The Nile River, the world’s longest river, flows from south to north. However, the prevailing winds there blow from north to south. Egyptian workers could sail south on the wind and work in the southern mines and quarries. That way, heavy resources such as gold and granite from mines and quarries could flow back north. “That’s not surprising,” he says Suzanne Onstein“The reason the capital is in the north is because it is the final destination for all products coming from the south,” said an Egyptologist at the University of Memphis in Tennessee.
It’s no surprise that ancient civilizations used the sun and wind as fuel. We tend to think of these concepts as modern and innovative. “They were very keen observers of nature and very good at exploiting all the resources in their environment,” says Onstein. “When you observe nature at that level, the possibilities for solving life’s problems are very diverse.”
read more: These 5 Modern Inventions Actually Have Ancient Roots
article source of information
our writers are discovermagazine.com We use peer-reviewed research and high-quality sources in our articles, and our editors review them for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Check out the following sources used in this article.
Avery Hart is a freelance science journalist. In addition to contributing to Discover, she is a regular contributor to a variety of outlets, both print and online, including National Geographic, Science News Explores, Medscape, and WebMD. She is the author of Bullet With Your Name on It: What You Will Simply Die From and What You Can Do About It (Clerisy Press 2007), as well as several other books for young readers. Avery entered the world of journalism while in college, writing for the school newspaper and editing the student nonfiction magazine. She writes about all areas of science, but has a particular interest in neuroscience, the science of consciousness, and AI, interests she developed while earning a degree in philosophy.
