Unlock the Answers to This Quiz on Ancient Inventions

In 1900, divers unearthed the Antikythera from a shipwreck. The use of the 2,000-year-old device was a mystery until CT scans were used to analyze it in 2006. Like a clock, the device was wound, but instead of telling time, the hands tracked movements of the sun and planets and the phases of the moon. Two additional dials displayed a calendar as well as timed lunar and solar eclipses.

In 2000, archaeologists found a fake toe in the tomb of a female mummy buried in Luxor, Egypt. The toe was made from a mixture of linen, glue, and plaster, much like modern papier-mâché. Initially, researchers thought the appendage was ornamental, but further studies showed it was likely used as a prosthetic to help disabled people walk.

Scientist Chang Heng of the Han Dynasty invented the world’s first seismometer in 132 CE. The device was made from a domed bronze vessel with eight dragons attached to the outside and eight corresponding toads at the base. If a ball rolled from a dragon into a toad’s mouth, then an earthquake was coming, and the direction of the earthquake was indicated by which toad swallowed the ball.

Physician Sushruta, known as the “Father of Plastic Surgery,” practiced in India between the seventh and sixth centuries BCE. His claim to fame was inventing and perfecting the rhinoplasty, or reconstruction of the nose. At the time, cutting off the noses of criminals and adulterous women was common practice, marking them for life. Sushruta’s surgery offered them a return to a life without stigma.

During the day, ancient Egyptians relied on sundials to keep time, but at night, they used a water clock. Invented around 1500 BCE by a court official named Amenemhet, the water clock was a copper, stone, or clay vessel filled with water and outfitted with a drain. The device drained water in increments over the course of 12 hours. Marks on the inside of the vessel indicated the precise hour.

In the 19th century, archaeologists discovered the world’s oldest lock at the Palace of Khorsabad in what was the Mesopatamian kingdom of Assyria (modern Iraq). The lock secures a door with pins of various lengths and a wooden bolt. A fitted key pushes the pins up, which moves the bolt out of the way for the door to be opened. The lock dates to around 4000 BCE.

Hero of Alexandria, a Greek mathematician, invented the vending machine in the first century BCE for Egyptian temples. To operate the device, a person would put a coin in the top of the box. The coin weighed down one end of a metal lever, raising the other end to lift a plug on a container of holy water. It dispensed water as the coin’s weight tilted and stopped when the coin dropped off.

The Maya (1500 BCE-900 CE) were the first civilization to harvest and process the cacao bean for chocolate drinks. After removing the beans from their pods, the Maya fermented, dried, and roasted the beans to bring out their flavor. Without sugar, they flavored hot chocolate with chili, honey, and cinnamon. They served the drink frothy by pouring it from one vessel to another.

During the first century CE, Romans created the first bound books, called codices, by stacking and binding together wax tablets. The wax tablets were later replaced by animal skin parchment and other paper materials. Early Christians were some of the first people to adopt codices to produce and circulate copies of the Bible.

During the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), Chinese alchemists discovered that magnetic iron ore points toward magnetic north. They attached a spoon-shaped needle to magnetite ore to create the compass. Used primarily for geomancy, the device was placed on a diviner’s board containing lunar positions and constellations to determine the best times and locations for significant events.