The first documentation of the cotton gin by contemporary scholars is found in the fifth century C.E., in the form of Buddhist paintings depicting a single-roller gin in the Ajanta Caves in western India.
A note in the text Cho Keng Lu, written in 1366, describes a sulfur match, small sticks of pinewood impregnated with sulfur, used in China by “impoverished court ladies” in C.E. 577 during the conquest of Northern Qi.
The first documented use of toilet paper in human history dates back to the 6th century C.E., in early medieval China.
A seismometer or seismoscope is an instrument that detects and measures the motions of the ground as a result of seismic waves gushing from an earthquake, volcanic eruption or powerful explosion.
The earliest wheelbarrows with archaeological evidence in the form of a one-wheel cart come from second century Han Dynasty Emperor Hui’s tomb murals and brick tomb reliefs.
The earliest evidence of glassblowing was found in Chogha Zanbil, where many glass bottles were found in the excavations of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. site
This multi-tube seed drill has been credited with giving China an efficient food production system that allowed it to support its large population for millennia.
The oldest known archaeological fragments of the immediate precursor to modern paper date to the 2nd century B.C.E. in China.
An astrolabe is an elaborate inclinometer, historically used by astronomers and navigators to measure the inclined position in the sky of a celestial body, day or night.
The Great Wall of China is an ancient series of walls and fortifications, totaling more than 13,000 miles in length, located in northern China. Perhaps the most recognizable symbol of China and its long and vivid history, the Great Wall was originally conceived by Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the third century B.C. as a means of preventing incursions from barbarian nomads. To this day, construction of the “Wan Li Chang Cheng,” or 10,000-Li-Long Wall, is one of the most ambitious building projects ever undertaken by any civilization.
