World: 500 - 000 BCE

400s Cast iron first used in Chinese Kingdom Wu with innovation of blast furnace, & soon becomes widespread for agricultural tools & weapons during Warring States.

400 Trebuchet catapult is first used by followers of Chinese philosopher Mozi.

400 Greeks invent Anchor with flukes.

400 Greeks start to use shear-leg cranes for construction & loading of ships.

400 Greeks invent linear perspective.

400 Greeks develop an indirect lost wax process for casting bronze.

445 - 396 49 Chinese hydraulic engineer Ximen Bao oversees enormous canal system for agricultural irrigation, while employed by Marquis Wen of Wei

407 Chinese philosopher Li Kui writes Book of Law in BC, basis for law codes of following Qin Dynasty & partially that of Han Dynasty.

490's Creation of Berlin Foundry Cup

325 Odometer. Alexander.

325 Oldest Brahmi script

325 Romans build first aqueduct

325 Chinese use handheld trigger crossbow for first time.

421 First crossbow, gastraphetes, is invented at Syracuse.

Burnt brick first used in Greece.

Donkey-powered mills first used in Greece.

Torque with lion's-head terminals, from Susa made. now in Musee du Louvre, Paris.

Daric, a coin first minted under Darius I of Persia made. It is now kept in Heberden Coin room, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

350 - 300 50 Tomb 2, so called Tomb of Philip II of Macedon, Vergina, Macedonia made.

309 Qin cut through shoulder of mountain, making 'Separated Hill' that abated Mo River, & excavated two canals in plain of Chengdu. significance of this was phenomenal, as it allowed new Guanxian irrigation system to populate an area of some 40 by 50 miles (60 × 80 km) with over five million people, still in use today

- Chinese astronomer Gan De divides celestial sphere into 365¼ degrees, & tropical year into 365¼ days when most astronomers used Babylon division of celestial sphere as 360 degrees

293 Time 1st divided into hours by a sundial of L. Papirius, Cursor at Rome.

293 First Roman Sundial

290 sixth wonder of world, Brass Colossus of Rhodes, built.

284 - 48 Alexandrian Library

280 Pharos of Alexandria, seventh wonder of world was built by Plolemy-Philadelphus. It was 550 feet high.

263 - 46 17 1st Great Wall of China constructed

240 Archimedes screw

Eratosthenes accurately calculates diameter of Earth.

- Weiqi well-established in China, & may date back to 2nd millennium BC.

- Stone of Canopus (for Ptolemy III), No. 1, in Rosetta Stone Series of 3 stones. Implements Leap year in Egypt. Leap year not formally recognized until Caesar in 55 BC.

- Water screw invented by Archimedes.

- Musical instrument hydraulis, precursory to Pipe organ by Ctesibius, a Greek engineer working in Alexandria

- Emperor Gaozu of Han China discovers elaborate mechanical puppet theater in treasury of previous ruler Qin Shihuang.

256 Enormous Du Jiang Yan Irrigation System of China is engineered & constructed by Li Bing

- Burial chamber, Tomb of Reliefs, Cerveteri, made.

- Great Stupa, Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, India, Maurya period, founded by King Ashoka.

- Silk exported to Europe from China.

190 Solar eclipse recorded in Rome

174 Streets of Rome paved.

170 First public bakery started in Rome.

168 Lunar eclipse recorded in Rome

100s Compass

- Chinese first produce Paper

- Silk Road between Europe & Asia

- Hipparchus discovers precession of Earth's equinoxes & compiles first trigonometric tables

- Liu An invented tofu

- Roman concrete (pozzolana) first used

- Rotary mill invented by ancient Greeks

- System for sending signs to communicate quickly over long distance described by Polybios

- Earliest known winnowing machine depicted in Han Dynasty Chinese tomb model.
- 145 - 90 55 Chinese historian Sima Qian

50s East torana of Great Stupa at Sanchi, is made. Early Andhra period. According to an inscription, it is sculpted by ivory carvers from nearby town of Vidisha.

00s Golf by Romans.

- Sunspots, first recorded by Chinese

- Antikythera mechanism is made

- First dome built by Romans

- Glass blowing invented in Roman Syria

40 Chinese Ji Jiu Pian dictionary published induring Han Dynasty is earliest known reference to hydraulic-powered trip hammer device.

- Late 1st century BC – Garden Scene, detail of a wall painting from Villa of Livia at Prima Porta, is made. It is now kept at Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome.