4 Things School Didn't Teach You About Ancient Civilization

Uncover the untold stories of ancient civilizations! From Chinese inventions predating Gutenberg to the incredible Inca road system and Greek robots, explore history beyond textbooks. Discover the secrets they didn't teach you in school!
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[@longlivroc]

You forgot Heron's most awesome invention; the aeolipile, which was not only the world's first functioning steam engine, but also the world's first steam turbine engine. Mf was about 2000 years ahead of his time

[@AndrewMitchell123]

Dayum son, dudes literally out of this planet 😂

[@leonmusk1040]

His poetry and verse were pretty good too old hero really was the package deal in the day. When we say Davinci, Leonardo say's hero.

[@thomasprislacjr.4063]

Real life Mechanicus

[@thecoon3193]

The aeolipile wasn't invented by Heron. Vitruvius wrote about it in around 20BCE, which predates Heron by a few decades.

[@johnmrke2786]

Or the steam era was about 2000 years behind.

[@greybeardedgamer9383]

I bet Catullus had a collection of "Yo mama" insults that were pure gold.

[@AndrewMitchell123]

I wouldnt doubt that, bro was an inventor of them 🤣😂 jokes aside, now I wonder who actually came up with yo momma jokes 😅 💯 💀 😎

[@chrisdab-]

@@AndrewMitchell123 yo momma did. I heard them growing up, they were fun.

[@amandafaulks2515]

I saw a video, I can't remember video, but one of the first yo mama jokes is carved on the wall of a cave in china.

[@AndrewMitchell123]

@@amandafaulks2515 oh thats cool

[@kaseyboles30]

@@AndrewMitchell123 Likely one of the first 10 folk to actually have language, possibly merely speaking aloud what used be told in gestures and pantomime.

[@matthewarmstrong7523]

It's sad to think about all the history that has literally crumbled away never be learned.

[@Yupppi]

Don't worry, we barely learn much about our own time either that's actually happening to us right now.

[@deathbeforedishonor9012]

It’s even crazier to think (I think it’s something like) 90% of human history is undocumented and unknown

[@d1o2c3t4o5r]

Modern human history, as in the stuff from the past 100,000 years, is not super interesting. What is really upsetting is how many fossils we're missing out on because scavengers smash skulls to eat brains. We were pretty lucky that dinosaurs were so big that smashing dinosaur bones wasn't a strict expectation.

[@mikezappulla4092]

@@d1o2c3t4o5rdon’t do drugs.

[@Ensensu2]

@@d1o2c3t4o5rI blame brains for being the closest thing that wild animals might ever get to french fries.

[@JSCRocketScientist]

Hero of Alexandria was a great engineer. One of my daughters was in college with two majors: Classics (Latin & Greek) and engineering. To settle how she would do her senior project, her two department heads got together and suggested that she translate some Latin or Greek engineering tomes and build something. From the writings of Hero of Alexandria, she translated instructions to build a torsion catapult and built a scale model. She was extremely popular at the demonstration where she shot bean bags with horse’s heads appliquéd on them across the campus lawn.

[@sko_psy]

That's real education!!! 🎉

[@inklingsun]

We built trebuchets in community college, one group did an onager, with prelaunch predictions of weight, height, distance.

[@jasonkrantz3643]

I’m an aerospace engineer with an undergrad degree in philosophy. This is the best thing I’ve read on the internet all day. Please give your daughter a high-five for me.

[@j.a.weishaupt1748]

I think it’s time for a rapper to pick up the name Catullus 16 and continue the important work our ancient friend started

[@davewhite3629]

And like the Athenians boy lovers

[@abstract5249]

People always talk about paper and the compass whenever talking about Chinese inventions, but few laymen realize China also invented guns and cannons (not just gunpowder), the bristle toothbrush, the banknote (paper currency), playing cards, equal temperament (part of music theory) and, most importantly, inoculation (specifically a method called variolation, which paved the way for vaccination). These are far more important in the grand scheme of history.

[@Uns46]

Soccer, chess

[@yong9613]

Blame hiding behind Great Wall mentality

[@abstract5249]

@@yong9613 The Great Wall is overrated. China's Grand Canal is much more impressive and significant. Built since the middle ages, it remains the longest artificial river in the world and still functions to this day, facilitating modern commerce and transport.

[@yong9613]

@@abstract5249 Marco Polo didn't mention it at length, ofc it's unheard-of in Europe, even the 'Great Wall' actually site was not brought to attention, ONLY some small insignificant mound of constructed stones to pass of as the real thing

[@LotusPost]

​@@Uns46 playing cards and chess are Indian inventions not Chinese. The name chess even comes from ancient Indian Sanskrit name.

[@Im-Not-a-Dog]

So....as for that translation.... Lord Yub-Tub will censor the comment if I write it out verbatim, but essentially, it starts with the author telling two guys to take a, or rather _his,_ bell end in both ends and calls one of them a "bottom"(literally) and calls the other one a very old fashioned word with a definition somewhere between Twink, Lolita, and Escort.

[@WakenerOne]

Personally, I was disappointed when I read the translations. I was expecting the filthiest insults ever written, but I've heard worse from the mouths of elementary school students in rough neighborhoods. To try to avoid the Yub-Tub punishment, I will (only slightly) paraphrase and say that in today-speak, what he told them was essentially (and specifying that the object of the object of the exercise was to be his own um . . . object) to "Jam it up your [donkeys] and eat a bag of [Richards], you [female dog]-[donkey] [bags of sticks]."

[@mortache]

Is it catamite???

[@mariovilas4176]

"…Take for instance poem 16, against the lean and treacherous pederasts Aurelius and Furius. They derided him for writing love-poems in which nothing beyond kissing was involved; that sort of thing, they said, wouldn't excite anyone but beardless boys. Waiting such soft stuff, Catullus must be soft himself, and sexually effemitate. Catullus threatens to prove his masculinity on them in person, and argues that 'soft' poems that play on the emotions can be as stimulating as sexually explicit descriptions. 'Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo…': the very obscenity betrays the underlying conflict of attitudes; only thus could Catullus get his message through to sensibilities so much cruder than his own. What Aurelius saw as a high-class bit of tail was to Catullus something chaste and innocent, to be cherished and protected." T.P. Wiseman

[@AsmallVictory]

This seems sadly rather tame.

[@Cocoa_Kalypso]

@@AsmallVictory the actual poem is far from. My jaw hit the floor on the first line.

[@siobhanomalley1968]

Omg 😂 I just looked up Catellus 16. Legend has it that Aurelius and Furius are still applying ice to that burn, to this day...

[@bamacopeland4372]

That burn was so bad, a 5th degree of major burn needs to be invited

[@KravenMoorehead674]

Yeah, there was definitely some anger behind that first line. 😂

[@YeeSoest]

😅recommending some solid mutual atm action to those who dare to doubt his manhood is quite the baller move😂

[@curiousworld7912]

@@YeeSoestWell put. :)

[@velzekt4598]

If poetry is supposed to be about expression, holy hell he was a master of poetry and expressing himself.

[@claywest9528]

The Greek notion of a fembot can also be in the myth about Galatea. The Roman notion that a poet can be so angry at contemporaries that it can be censored two thousand years later can be found in Cattalus 16.

[@Shaneq718]

and just like that i'm sitting here at work tracking down Catullus' greatest hits :)

[@jessifer23f]

Please share the translated one.

[@TheLostCorner]

​@@jessifer23fAt risk of having my KZbin account deleted, a rough rendering of the first and last couplets of Catullus 16 would be "Fuck *you* up the arse and *you* in the face, cock-riding Aurelius and cock-sucking Furius", except it's apparently rather stronger than that in the Latin.

[@TheLostCorner]

You can also track Catullus' relationship with Lesbia (almost certainly Clodia Metelli, sister of Clodius Pulcher) as it swings wildly from fervent love to accusing her of kneeling in shit-smeared alleyways sucking off Romulus' filthiest descendants. Catullus did not pull his punches. Clodia seems to have gone on to have an affair with a "Caelius" and a "Rufus", quite possibly both references to Marcus Caelius Rufus, protege of Cicero and Crassus. If we're to believe Catullus, his armpits stank like goats and made the women gag. Or, to quote Peter Green's translation, "It's a nasty creature with which *no* pretty girl would share a bed. So either kill off this brutal plague of noses or stop being puzzled why girls run away". Catullus did not pull his punches...

[@TheLostCorner]

@@jessifer23fJust in case KZbin has censored my reply, which does seem to have vanished, it can be rendered "F *you* up the a and *you* in the gob, c-riding Aurelius and c-sucking Furius", except apparently it's a bit stronger and more obscene in the Latin.

[@TheLostCorner]

(I followed it up with another couple of gems. One where Catullus has clearly turned on Lesbia (almost certainly Clodia Metelli, sister of Clodius Pulcher) given he accuses her of kneeling in poo-filled alleyways err providing pleasure to Remus' filthiest descendants; and the other where he accuses one Caelius (almost certainly Marcus Caelius Rufus, protege of both Cicero and Crassus) of having armpits that stank like a rank goat that no girl wanted to share a bed with and he shouldn't be surprised they all run away. Catullus really did pull no punches.)

[@bwar05]

The first translation I read of the poem had me cracking up 🤣🤣. My guy DID NOT come to play 😂😂

[@Ksoism]

He hits heavier than rappers beefing, and right from the first verse! Guy is brutal.

[@miamor5929]

What explain ?

[@chrisdab-]

@@miamor5929 google search is your best friend.

[@bwar05]

@@miamor5929 check out Catullus 16. I can't type it without getting blocked lol

[@BevenOiCarrinuinn]

@@miamor5929 rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/text2/e16.htm

[@MJC-yo5kj]

In the United States they gloss over the eastern Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, because of its relation to the Eastern Orthodox Church’s relationship with the Soviet union at the time and was taken out of textbooks during the Cold War

[@inklingsun]

Plus, dumb people work for less

[@Bubbaist]

You know, the Phoenicians gave us the Phonetic alphabet, and they wrote on papyrus like the Egyptians. Unlike Egypt, Lebanon is a humid climate, so the papyri all rotted. That’s why we don’t have any writings from the people who gave us our alphabet.

[@lionelmessisburner7393]

they were goated

[@davidjacobs8558]

some claim Phoenician writing system is ultimately derived from Egyptian writing system.

[@SkunkApe407]

@@davidjacobs8558 the Egyptians used four text styles in the past. Hieroglyphics, Heiratic, Demotic, and Coptic. None of which resemble Phoenician text. I don't know where you heard that, but it is vital to check your sources. Phonetic text was likely inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphics, but was in no way derivative of hieroglyphics. Derived and inspired are two different words, with entirely different meanings.

[@liamhealy4511]

The phonetic alphabet is like "Alpha Bravo Charlie" etc.

[@vinsanity982]

@@SkunkApe407Google search shows several articles. Which means the OP 100% correct that “some people say”. And to your second point, the articles specifically say that the letters are simplified representations of hieroglyphics which would be a derivative. However, saying the information is wrong simply because the language “doesn’t look like it” seems pretty shaky and unscientific.

[@cassiechristian1147]

Fact Boi, that was an amazing video! Thank you for sharing and having such a great team! The editing and writing were impeccable

[@wilsonicsnet]

Catulus 16, now that’s one of those things you just can’t unsee 😅 Totally worth the read.

[@christiancook3118]

This video got Googles search history looking REAL suspect the last 12 hours.

[@ABC1701A]

Put it this way, for some reason google won't let me access Catullus 16, apparently access is blocked.

[@m2burles1]

@@ABC1701AI read it through a wiki link in one of the comments

[@ABC1701A]

@@m2burles1 I tried that but google wouldn't let me so I used my tablet and a totally different search engine and had no problems. Can see why you might not want to read it out loud in a video though. He definitely had the knack of getting his point across in a very very direct - and unmissable - way.

[@jordanwalker2804]

Catullus over there with the earliest of dis-tracks...

[@ChinaJalette]

I’ve taught the first two things to my kiddos in 10th grade world history this school year! I’m a first year teacher at a public school in Kentucky so they’ve not had a chance to burn me at the stake for teaching history thoroughly yet. I read/translated these Catullus poems in high school Latin myself. It wasn’t in the curriculum but as a bunch of degenerate seniors, we were translating these recreationally.

[@robwo]

My college library contained volumes of Catullus' poems printed in the 19th century. Most of the poems were printed in English, with the naughty bits in Latin. This encouraged the desperate schoolboys to top up their Latin studies.

[@annabarr1304]

Off topic, but I'm thankful for my 3rd grade teacher who also went off grid. She was Canadian and made sure we learned the metric system because the majority of the world used. That little move on her behalf was a huge move for me.

[@jorgelotr3752]

Things that I was taught in school from this list: -Chinese inventions: movable type printing press (just in passing), paper, compass (but not their appearance); basically all of them. -Inca road system (and their courier system made possible thanks to them); I believe they didn't mention the tunnel, but they did mention the rope bridges and called them "a feat of engineering". -Catullus, but not the poems themselves, I believe. But after searching "Catullus 16", I'm pretty sure that my Classics teacher taught us at least the first line (and that despite the fact that he mostly taught us Greek and Greek culture and rushed through Latin and Roman history). The only one not really taught was the one about Greek robots, altough they did teach me, at least as mentions, about a lot of other mechanism, contraptions and thingamabobs (including, believe it or not, the automatic doors). I believe the issue here would be the anglocentrism, where when someone from an English-speaking country, mainly England (could be extended to all of the UK, but that's rarer) and the US, tweaks an existing foreign invention or introduces something that wasn't known in their specific country suddenly they become the "invento" or the "discoverer"/"introductor to the Western world", but if someone from outside that sphere achieves something that, when squinting, may appear loosely based on something vaguely related to someone from an English-speaking country, then all the credit goes to the English-speaking guy. There are many outrageous cases I've come across, but the funniest one is that some English botanist dude is credited with bringing camellias to Europe despite the fact that by the time there were centuries-old camellias in Europe (some of which are still alive today!), just not in the British Isles, and they were a relatively common ornamental tree for the wealthy in places like Italy or Portugal.

[@dianapennepacker6854]

I am sure there are a lot of ancient technologies that were never recorded or the records themselves deteriorated. Then finally kept in records, and continued to be passed on. Chinese were incredible with their record keeping for sure. Meticulous, and had an entire caste of scribes century after century working. It is probably why so many things seem invented there when it could be invented somewhere else. Pasta is a good example. I bet it was created way before anyone decided to write about it. The ten digit numerial system I think is amazing. Zero is such an abstract idea, and didn't exsist in Europe really till the 12th century till conflict in the Middle East. The oldest trace is from Babylonia. Romans did not have zero. Greeks only occasionally used it.(So I guess Europe did have it). Anyway it blew my mind. Then when you think about it. Doing complex math in roman numerials is horrific. So Romans... Great Engineers. Terrible mathematicians.

[@jorgelotr3752]

@@dianapennepacker6854 Pasta was indeed invented before anyone recorded it... and before anyone invented a method to record it. Dried noodle packets (as in protable lumps of dried noodles, not noodles wrapped in foil with condiment sachets) have been found in Neolithic camps in East Asia. And about Greeks and the 0... they only ever used it whe recording degrees with minutes and seconds, and it worked more like an empty set symbol than a zero (and it looked like an empty set symbol too).

[@brotherfranciz]

Yes, definitely agree with Eurocentric education - I was taught that European explorers "discovered" all these new continents and claimed the land. Mate, it's like me walking into your home and claiming I discovered it so I own it. 🙄

[@jorgelotr3752]

@@brotherfranciz technically, "discovered" is the correct term when you take into account the different meanings of the word. And I was taught that they either conquered or seized it, depending on the particular case. "Discover" with the meaning of "first discover" and "claim" are not terms that appeared in my curriculum, although I've found from cmments and conversations that those are the words used in countries like the US and the UK. Now, when you take into account that the problems of the US with the native americans in the seized mexican territories stemmed from literally treating the land as uninhabited and claiming it, despite the natives being the legal owners of their lands in the former administration (the issues with the native americans in the rest of the country come from forced treaties unilaterally broken), that may explain that choice of wording.

[@Lee-km7qq]

If there's one thing I know about inventions is that, no one is ever truly the first one to come up with something. There's always multiple people who have the same idea.

[@nicholascecil6733]

Catullus 16 did NOT disappoint 😂😂

[@durk5331]

It really did not, that's amazing XD

[@velzekt4598]

I laughed uncontrollably at the first line, "Pēdīcābō ego vōs et irrumābō" It's like hearing a kid insult you on Xbox voice chat.

[@bretthompson5343]

What's is it !! Lol ​@@durk5331

[@ScionStorm1]

C16 is a whole ass mood

[@edwardbookman5791]

I know it would be dirty, but goddamn! Catullus was a gansta!

[@stefiz]

I decided to study mandarin during pandemic, I loved it. I’m addicted to ancient Chinese dramas now🤩

[@randomramblings2325]

Great video, please do a part 2

[@steveswangler6373]

I always look at grade school as exposing children to different subjects, history, science, etc. Teaching children to think critically and then after the basics are taught, the children gravitate toward the subjects that interest them. I know this is an idealized thought, it’s how it worked for me, but I know that isn’t the way it is really set up.

[@ArachnerdGC]

They don't seem to teach critical thinking skills in schools these days. The world would be a much better place if it - and logic -was taught.

[@julianaylor4351]

I loved ancient history as a kid and my father encouraged me to learn, being a classics graduate who became a deputy headteacher who taught Latin and English. I still have a set of ancient history books I brought, as a junior school kid. So I know some of this already. Did you know the Viking raiders also used primitive compasses using magnetic stones, that they got from the Silk Road, but most Europeans as you said didn't have them. Recent archeological finds of longships have occasionally found them. But they were nowhere near as sophisticated as Chinese or later European ones. Just magnetic stones in boxes, that you needed a primative map to use, along with a knowledge of the night sky and sun positions. I love that the Greeks knew about steam power, but left it to us Brits in the late 18th century to create the Industrial Revolution. 😁

[@leonmusk1040]

Also prior to getting lode stones they used a piece of feldspar to see the sun through cloud cover.

[@kimyoonmisurnamefirst7061]

BTW, it's hypothesized by an article that the Printing Press likely spread because of the Uighurs because the first text came from Dunhuang, China. Metal Movable type was Koreans, Choi Yun Ui, who started at first with Chinese letters in Goryeo, but later applied it to hangeul. The first metal movable type text is in France, The Jikji ,because France commandeered it during a World Exhibition from a Korean Prince, but then didn't give it back. The thing that Gutenberg invented was the adjustable type mold, which allowed for different fonts more easily, etc of different sizes, but people still want to attribute a whole host of other things to him instead of the thing he did invent.

[@radaka]

Wow. Just curious, how do you know all that? Sound pretty smart

[@AndrewMitchell123]

oh, so is this another reason for the Uighur oppression then... challenging the Han-Chinese view of their domination of Ancient Chinese history

[@SEAZNDragon]

@@AndrewMitchell123 Not to mention China became fairly isolationist in the 1500s. Went from sending fleets as far as Africa to keeping to China's immediate area. There's also the issue of Chinese print using characters craved into wood blocks which still a long and tedious process even if the print made writing easier.

[@kimyoonmisurnamefirst7061]

@@SEAZNDragonThey also did clay for a time, but those broke under the weight.

[@kimyoonmisurnamefirst7061]

@@AndrewMitchell123Definitely spread by Uighur people, invention, as mentioned was Han people. But the spread of the ideas of printing, according to the article I cited to another person was likely Uighurs. If you missed it, the Islamic Empire was pretty awesome all around. As outlined in this video, I mean autmatons from the Islamic Empire? We need more of that kind of cool history--which is why I think being focused only on your country can be boring. If you never see how everything interconnects and how awesome trade can be, you think that your people are the best, rather than the cooperation of humanity is the greatest.

[@KhaoticKalm]

Catullus… I’m going to need to speak to your mother young man 😑

[@masonhawes3468]

Was very disappointed that no one had posted the first line in English yet so I found the translation. Now I know why.

[@jimgsewell]

Don't leave the rest of us disappointed

[@jimgsewell]

Oh, 😳 never mind

[@masonhawes3468]

@@jimgsewell Yup, those were my thoughts exactly.

[@TheLostCorner]

I actually did. I think my comment was censored by KZbin since I can see it in my history but it didn't appear under the video. This isn't a *surprise* but I thought it was worth a try.

[@travisinthetrunk]

“I’ll push your s**t in and stuff your face.”

[@Ivan_Ooze]

the ancient chinese dont get enough credit for just how much they innovated

[@marksnow7569]

Basic consequence of not letting outsiders wander round [EDIT: For example it's possible that the modern compass, with a needle, was not invented in China but 100% independently in western Europe, because such a compass is described being used in the English Channel before the first mention of Chinese compasses reaching the Indian Ocean]

[@hzhang1228]

@@marksnow7569 compasses with a needle is still first recorded in China. there is a long line of records for the evolution of the compass in China whereas Europe skipped to the maritime navigational compass.

[@marksnow7569]

@@hzhang1228 True, but the first description of a compass being used anywhere else outside the direct Chinese sphere of influence, about 40 years after the first European description, relates to a very Chinese-style "pointing fish". It's unlikely that the needle design was transmitted from China to the English Channel without somebody in either the Indian Ocean or the Mediterranean mentioning it earlier.

[@hzhang1228]

@@marksnow7569 historical recordings often follows common adaption. the common route of knowledge transfer from East to West happened along the silk route/Mongol invasions. different technologies found different popular use due to different needs. the lack of compass evolution and skipping to the more refined model indicate knowledge transfer. it may well be that it transferred through landlocked areas that had less usage and adaption and written record would lag the much more sea faring regions of Europe. movable printing press was also invented in China and was improved in Korea into metal cubes. but block printing was still more popular due to the fact too many Chinese characters made movable types have a huge upfront cost to produce even if the characters can be reused, where as in Europe the written language made the technology much more economical and thus more popular. you have to follow the line of technological evolution, not popular usage, because needs are different based on variety of factors.

[@Lee-km7qq]

Because they didn't actually invent it. Do you genuinely believe the chinese were the first to think "gee, if we press this thing hard enough, it'll stick around"? That's like saying the Wright Brothers invented flying, when in reality, it would be more accurate to say they created the first working way to fly. Plenty of people have come up with hypothesis and ideas on how humans could potentially fly. Same goes for the printing press, history shows that the chinese shouldn't be credited for anything other than having a neat version of a common concept.

[@xorngoh7303]

Ancient Chinese invented gunpowder too, and also silk and the loom. Crossbows and arbalests were also invented at around the Three Kingdoms era by Yue Ying, the lesser known wife of the famous strategist Zhuge Liang.

[@DccAnh]

Crossbow have been around thousands of years before the Three Kingdom era, China were the first civilization to adopt mass crossbow as standard ranged weapon for army.

[@mailen7341]

weaving looms have been in use since ( at least) the beginning of the neolithic period. Of course they were not looking like our modern looms but the technique and the tool, did exist already. So they are waaaaayyyy older than ancient China’s existence

[@DccAnh]

@@mailen7341 yeah weaving loom have been around since the dawn of humanity, pretty sure the Neolithic ancestors of the Chinese also have them. China later on improve on its design and invented the ground loom, around 5000 years ago, this loom saw the warp threads stretched horizontally close to the ground while the weft threads were passed through using a simple shuttle. This made weaving large pieces of fabric more comfortable and accessible, ground looms are still used even today, particularly in regions where traditional weaving practices persist or where there is a preference for simple, portable weaving equipment.

[@mailen7341]

@@DccAnh yes, all societies improved ancien techniques, to fullfill their needs. The fact that these are only improvements only shows the greatness of our ancestors. Weaving, spinning extract fibers, the invention of the needle, potery, the creation of the knife, all of these are humanity REAL achievements. Knives have almost not evolve in concepts or designs for more than15000 years needles for more than 20000 years!!!!!!. Weaving whatever sort of loom you are using ( their forms depend on local practicalities and necessities) is done the same as it was 10000 years ago. We tend to forget how small our achievements are compared to those of our early ancestors

[@victoriaeads6126]

Oh. The title of Catullus 16 just literally made me burst out laughing. DEFINITELY not something I would ever expect in a high school classroom, that's for sure! Maybe in the schoolyard, though. 😏😂

[@the5THofNOV]

Great video Simeon and team!

[@renee_3364]

One of my most vivid memories of grammar school was having to translate Catullus’ poem about a woman “playing with/petting the little sparrow in her lap” and being violently uncomfortable with the innuendo when having to read it out loud. Specifically how excited our teacher got over it…😅

[@brunozeigerts6379]

They mentioned the printing press in MASH. 'Frank, these BARBARIANS were printing with movable type in 400 BC." Pearce: Yeah, I was in 401.. the noise kept me awake all night.

[@user-cf4ti9id7x]

I'm dying laughing, I think that's my new favorite poem.

[@deadringer-cultofdeathratt8813]

1:30 no I think most people know that paper originated in China. It just feels like part of the lore.

[@thomasmiracle7826]

Thanks for the video would love to just sit down and have a conversation with you have you ever thought of doing a pod cast

[@veemzstudio618]

Love the content! Keep up the great work! Please do a similar video on ancient India. There is a lot to unpack from ancient India! I would recommend Indian knowledge systems, 6 big philosophies, Vedas, vedangas, upavedas. There are some great videos out already but take a look into it!

[@martytrueblood5902]

the medicine wheel is the greatest invention as that led to navigation ..humanity and reason.. it is a first nation conception and long calendar as well as the natrual compassion of earth

[@zoopdterdoobdter5743]

Ancient Egypt: _35' long scrolls are a limiting factor._ 'X" Today: _280-characters and attention spans half-as-long._ 😩

[@MKahn84]

Excellent video! I was taught many of these things in school (Chinese invention of paper, printing, and gunpowder; Incan Quipu). But then, I'm old, which means that, sadly, what you're documenting is the decline in modern schooling. I have a problem when you say certain inventions "made their way" to Europe. Yes, there was printing - some with movable type - in China and the Arab world as well. It did not take off and remained nothing but a little-known "side project" or curiosity in both because their writing methods did work with movable type (and apparently problems with their inks). There have always been a lot of smart people, and many things have been invented in multiple places at different times without any communication between the cultures. The wheel and the related waterwheel are two examples, as is rope, watercraft of various types, sails, oars, etc. Printing and the compass also are both examples of this. Gutenberg's real genius came with the invention of the process by which he molded the type, including the particularly metal alloy used, and of the printing press itself. But consider that it was Italy that provided the primary route by which ideas passed from east to west. Gutenberg invented his press in Mainz yet 20 years later half known printing presses were built in Italy. Had printing "made its way" to Europe from China, it would have arrived in Italy first, not been invented in Germany. But let us not forget that Gutenberg's invention could not have happened without paper, a Chinese invention that definitely made its way to Europe. I vaguely recall that there was some skullduggery involved in the process of smuggling that whole process out of Chinese control. Part of the reason printing did not really take off in the Chinese and Arab worlds was their method of writing wasn't amenable to printing. It really took off in the west because the Ancient Egyptians set in motion alphabets with stand-alone letters, thus allowing type cases full of individual letter type. Standard practice was, for each font and size, the capital letter type was stored in the case above the type case with the smaller, normal letters, which is why we call them "upper case" and "lower case" letters. The compass also didn't "make it's way" to Europe. The Arab world (the normal route for travel of inventions from China and India to the west) didn't begin using the compass until the 13th century. That was not only decades after the first European compasses were developed in the late 12th century, but the Arabs' first compasses were of the Chinese spoon design while the first European compasses were already needles by the last decades of the 12th century. Marco Polo would not make his journey along the Silk Road to China until almost a century had passed after the development of the compass in Europe. The invention of quipus was total genius. The climate is inhospitable for anything like paper and ink, yet they had the need to record and communicate information. Clay tablets could have worked, but they're heavy and difficult to transport without damage across any distance given the landscape. The quipu provided a robust, lightweight, easy-to-transport recording and communication system. No doubt it was lack of time that prevented mention of Hero's steam engine (aeolipile). Absent the abundant slave labor that the Roman Empire depended on, it's very likely that Hero's invention would have produced a Roman industrial revolution, especially when coupled with further developments of the mechanisms in his robot. A steam-powered Rome with its roads becoming railroads may have never fallen.

[@episode6691]

Most of the time, people don’t pay attention in school hence “oh it was never taught to us” , a lot of these types of videos or who mention europeans are just trying make a jab at europeans.

[@hzhang1228]

in China there is a long record of the evolution of printing press and the compass, whereas European lacks records of that evolution. plus printing did take off in China, block printing was just cheaper. movable type was at first expensive but when introduced to Korea they then refined with metal blocks. they were instrumental in preserving important text and thus was not some little known side projects that has centuries of development and usage not the mention the high cost involved. it was not Italy that provided the primary route of ideas from east to west, it was the Mongol invasions which drove ideas first to Germany before Italy. also by the time the compass was used for navigation in China it was a needle. European records skipped to much more refined knowledge of such technologies, indicating a transfer of knowledge happened.

[@amadeojacohinde3630]

Many people underestimate the influence or Marco Polo journeys to China and it's permanent footprint on later European development of science, education and navigation (just 3 big examples). It is actually not even in the official narrative of education systems, mainly because, you guess: eurocentrism yet lives in western cultures. But yeah, China played a much more important role in Western history than we give them credit for...

[@whatitmeans]

A chinese mathematician near year 450 A.C. found Milü = 355/133, an approximation of pi which match 5 decimal places

[@Techstriker1]

This is why I like the Civilization games. You just passively pick up so many cool history stuff like this.

[@jontsang7334]

Before the Yuan Dynasty (1274-1368) China's Emperor's rule was far from absolute; the locals retained much power. China became a centralized political entity starting from the Ming Dynasty (1368) up to now.

[@limlim1630]

The short intro had someone using a yellow highlighter pen...they highlighted the space between the words..i won't sleep tonight !

[@jrmckim]

Ocd that bad?

[@exmcairgunner]

Simon you’ve nailed it again.

[@themcqueendream6797]

Well hot dang if that is poetry then call me Shakespeare 😂

[@grumpyoldnord]

Just wait till you find out what all Shakespeare wrote. 🤣

[@Paste4brains]

I see this guy in multiple channels covering different genres. If he owns all those channels then I'm impressed.

[@mariededkova603]

We learned about Bi Sheng in high school! Granted, I studied publishing and book selling and we learned this in the book history class.

[@enginelol]

My grandma said to me "I don't care what they teach you in school, Cleopatra was black"

[@multiyapples]

Thanks for informing us Simon and co.

[@hackerthumb1551]

Gaius, absolutely legendary poem skills! 😂

[@johnfyten3392]

It's the first and last verse of the poem that really say it best

[@r.uuriintuyah.2053]

I love that I can see the ikea cactus set in so many KZbin channels

[@AreUmygrandson]

I chose to read the text books at school and there was a lot they weren’t teaching. Was very confusing

[@gomahklawm4446]

I always read the whole thing too. But in class we used like 10-20% of it....

[@jamesberdine8574]

I think a lack of time has a lot to do with not covering the whole text. I grew up overseas and did not live in the U.S. until I was a sophomore in high school.having been to many of the places discussed in history and geography class I found some of the information wrong. Got into many heated discussions with the teachers.

[@davethompson3326]

The lot they weren’t teaching was generally the most interesting

[@AreUmygrandson]

To be honest I only read the books out of boredom as I didn’t enjoy schoolwork. I was often in “ISS” in school suspension. My only options were the dictionary or text books. Subsequently, I actually did really well on standardized tests.

[@megaflux7144]

who the hell didnt know china invented paper?

[@JonHancockUK]

You, at some point in your life.

[@megaflux7144]

@@JonHancockUK not really, I just assumed Rice paper came from... china

[@leonmusk1040]

Yeah when he was 5 maybe lol.@@JonHancockUK

[@abstract5249]

Ikr?😂Paper is overrated. What most people don't know is that China also invented guns and cannons (not just gunpowder). And when I say "gun," I mean a handheld, metal tube that shoots projectiles. But the single most important Chinese invention has got to be inoculation, which paved the way for vaccination. Imagine where we would be without vaccines. Smallpox and polio would still be rampant.

[@mariovilas4176]

You'd be surprised how often that fact is not taught in schools in the West.

[@tavonfenwick-yb5xv]

Great video as always! Love from Baltimore, Maryland, USA

[@tristanhallmark2724]

You watched a 14 minute video in under 3 minutes? Doubtful. Sure this will be a good one though

[@philbarlow8645]

Came here at minute 4 to say the same thing

[@willisgirl1]

Wow! I’m from Baltimore too!!!

[@johngriffon2118]

Catallus really said "Bring It"

[@EamonCoyle]

Just adding to the first one with China, the oldest bound book ever found was also in China and I think it was from like 800AD !!

[@competitionglen]

Oh my, Cattulus you did wax lyrical. 😂. I will never see the number 16 and not think of you.

[@jasonlucas2328]

A book was written five thousand years ago in China. The book describes huge-sized animals like dinosaurs and provides geographic descriptions of Chinese mountains and seas. Chinese thought it was a fairy tale until they entered the industrial era. Then, they realized that the book accurately described the Chinese coastline. Also, in Chinese folk knowledge, some farmers in rural China can name many stars in the sky.

[@trishapellis]

Too bad the sections that schools cut out of the curriculum for time are often the ones that make the whole concept interesting in the first place.

[@bochica3562]

"Pēdīcābo ego vōs et irrumābō." Now, that's what I call poetry! 😅

[@marcofabiocarosi2996]

Mentula conatur scendere montem! BTW Catullus means little cat. I really loved his poems when I studied Latin. I had to learn one by heart but actually could recite many.

[@angelodira6193]

I'd like to thank Civ V for teaching me about China's contribution to paper. That green dragon is a fun civ to play.

[@jameswingert9596]

The Brent Rambo Approved Papyrus is cracking me up. 🤣

[@Animo2006]

Yo, Catullus 16 is wild. 😂

[@aceloco817]

Dang, how many shows does this dude host?! Gotta be the busiest host in the business! 😆

[@benlap1977]

Wow, did someone from Side Project actually read my comments? Excellent intro!

[@DaereonLive]

Ha, I DID know about Catullus! Had Latin on secondary school in the Netherlands :P

[@dalhaw6760]

Actually I was born 1981 and i learned in school that the Chinese came up with gunpowder flame thrower and fireworks and paper and indigo and spaghetti, but I think I might have might have learned. that last one from tv Muppet babies . Is when kermit was magellan

[@edwinwhitaker5679]

Lodestone is not a magnetic metal, it is a magnetic mineral which is magnetite (ferric iron oxide )

[@yogachick1955]

I really like your videos. I am surprised, however, that you still use BC and AD instead of BCE and CE when talking about historical time periods

[@vladciobanu7480]

Nice ones. For sure, there are a whole log of others not mentioned, but most of them are for historians, not for everyday students.

[@texashustler9845]

We need more Cattulus. Cattulus 16 is truly the most badass poem ever written

[@devamjani8041]

I wish you also had mentioned the Indian civilization and its inventions. India was the global epicenter for maths, science, logic and philosophy for the longest amount of time and was also the richest and most industrious for the longest right until the brits arrived. India was the richest and most industrious country before the brits came amd also the scientific and mathematical capital of the world. That is why everyone was searching for a way to get there. Because they read from the accounts of amcient Greece and Rome about how great India is. Aristotle mentioned it while tutoring Alexander. Romans were worried that Indian goods are capturing all of their market and too much of Roman gold going there to pay for these imports. India's contributions to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), political science, civilization, philosophy, concepts of human rights, civil rights, economics, diplomacy, etc. The list of these facts is infinitely long so you will have to do a lot of research by your own, but i will list my favorite ones here. 1) The entire decimal number system, which may as well be the greatest invention/discovery ever in the history of humanity, the system that we use today world wide, was developed in India. That is why it is called the Hindu numerical system. Some history textbooks call them Hindu Arabic system, which is totally false. The arab/Persian mathematicians themselves NEVER claimed them, they themselves called them the Hindu numerical system. This system was developed in India by contributions of various mathematicians whose name and works i will give below, then when the muslims came they learned about it and one mathematician, called al Khwarizmi, who was the greatest mathematician of the islamic world at that time and arguably of the entire islamic golden age, wrote a book about it called On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals, written about 820, which was principally responsible for spreading the Hindu numeral system throughout the Middle East and Europe. It was translated into Latin as Algoritmi de numero Indorum. Al-Khwārizmī, rendered in Latin as Algoritmi, led to the term "algorithm". His another work, called al-gebre, also based on primarily Indian mathematics but also greek and his own contributions, gave rise to the term algebra. When i say the Hindu numeral system, i don't just mean the ten symbols from zero to nine, but the entire system which also includes the rules ( algorithms) on how to do all types of calculations with it. How to apply addition, subtraction, multiplication and division amd other mathematical operations on these numbers. Further, this system allows us to represent any rational number just by using these 10 symbols, something not present in ANY OTHER system that ever existed. You can't do it with roman numerals, Greek numerals, Persian, Mayan, etc, not a single one can do this or any of the above mentioned features. Not only that, when later negative numbers and fractional numbers where discovered, Indian mathematicians developed rules for doing calculations with them as well. All of this was done by Indian mathematicians, namely Brahmagupt, Aryabhatta, Bhaskara I, Bhaskara II, Virahamahavira, Mahavira, Pingala, Madhava, Nilikantha Somayaji, etc. These mathematicians also made other fundamental and pioneering and revolutionary contributions to mathematics. Brahmagupt discovered the quadratic formula, zero, lots and lots of contributions to algebra, lots of theorems, etc. Madhava, who also founded the Kerala school of Mathematics, almost discovered calculus over 250 years before newton or leibnitz were even born. He made pioneering and fundamental contributions to many fields of maths such as study of infinite series, calculus, trigonometry, geometry, and algebra. He was the first to use infinite series approximations for a range of trigonometric functions. Among his many contributions, he discovered infinite series for the trigonometric functions of sine, cosine, arctangent, and many methods for calculating the circumference of a circle. One of Madhava's series is known from the text Yuktibhāṣā, which contains the derivation and proof of the power series for inverse tangent, discovered by Madhava. Aryabhatta invented/discovered trigonometry among a lot of other things. I encourage you to look this mathematicians and contributions to maths, physics and astronomy online. There is so much more, and this continues to this day, in the modern times there were Ramanujan, S N Bose, etc. 3) India is the oldest civilization in the world, called the Harrappan civilization or the Indus valley civilization. We invented city planning, underground drainiage system, buttons, soaps, shampoos, diamonds, steel, etc. The world's oldest living language is Indian ( one of Sanskrit or Tamil ), the world's first Port was built in India by the Harrappan civilization in Lothal, Gujarat, the world's oldest religion is Hinduism, etc. Everyone from ancient greece to ancient Persians, to Chinese, whoever came to India sang praises of India. The ancient Greeks called India the Cradle of the civilization. India was the richest country in the world for over 1600 years.

[@ABC1701A]

You didn't mention the Greek/Roman version of the modern day tachograph, ironically used on rental carts so the owner knew exactly how far they had travelled and could thus charge the appropriate amount (apparently they charged by distance rather than time hired). And it used small pebbles and some probably fairly complicated gearing.

[@ABC1701A]

People didn't know China invented the compass, paper and the printing press - plus quite a bit more. You surprise me as we not only learned this at school - 3rd form/age 13 when we covered the classical and early ''middle'' ages including China - but the BBC/ITV (can't remember now) did an excellent television series in the late 70s taking an ordinary modern item and tracing it's history right the way back to the beginning, often in either China, India or the area including Egypt and Mesopotamia, sometimes as late as the Greeks or Romans. For some reason the name Jonathon Miller comes to mind but don't know if it's correct, an absolutely fascinating and very informative programme though.

[@Umski]

Yep, just been watching a documentary on the Khmer Empire in Cambodia - fascinating what we aren’t aware of 🤔

[@prufrock1977]

Wow. That poem’s first line. DAMN 😮

[@masterchinese28]

Catallus 16 deserves some sort of shrine! Come worship at the poetic altar!

[@joefkems8877]

THAT wheelbarrow (hi)story deserves desperately a seperate sidetrack Video…

[@Brubarov]

The Mayans also had paper! And there were some pretty "advanced" civs in latin american Antiquity too, like the Olmecs and the Moches (Peruvian pyramids from 200 AD), etc. Even if I have a bachelor degree from a Canadian university, we still didn't learn crap about pre-columbian history, while there is sooo much to learn!

[@jhanner80]

Catullus basically starts with the poet saying, I will conduct an unsolicited probing of you cranium.......orally!

[@leonmusk1040]

you forgot after going via your sphincter earliest record of a2m. lol

[@RandomDeforge]

in what country did you go to school? every single subject you mentioned in this video i was taught about in an NYC public high school.

[@gregrea9578]

I love these "Things they didn't teach you in school videos" that then go over the things that I, as a *high school* world *history teacher* , actually _taught in school_ 😆. If you didn't learn this stuff in high school, it's probably cause you were stoned or too busy texting your girlfriend during my class. (or maybe I was boring that day).

[@monumentmendez]

Let’s not forget the histories and civilizations that were maliciously erased, never to be learned from again.

[@rossharper1983]

I googled the C16 poem like a lot of people in these comments but found over a dozen different translations. While they all got across the same point, some were clearly using modernised words.

[@wheezesanchez5661]

Using modern words is kind a necessity when translating a dead language to living people. But yes, they had a specific word for that. Also, you may be surprised to find that some turns of phrase are as old as history. I've seen "plowing" used to refer to intercourse in written works from the 9th century BCE

[@no-bd8ko]

Catullus 16 was my favorite poem to be assigned in college

[@ethanchaney1139]

Learned about the Chinese printing process one in AP World History Sophomore year of high school :) I live in the US btw.

[@isabel_withonel9554]

the world and "civilization" are SOO much older than we all think I say civilization in quoted because being fully civilized looks different depending on where you are

[@BartOppeel]

Pēdīcābō ego vōs et irrumābō. KZbin does not allow the translated version ;)

[@Trekkie46]

I just read a few transitions of that poem, since the transitions are not perfect and the variety gives you a better comprehension of the text. It really sounds like a hastily written social media rant. Guess people really do never change.

[@PhredLG]

There was an article many years ago that listed dozens of inventions that the Chinese came up with and that not much came of them because they also invented bureaucracy.

[@gottlichhg]

C-16 Bro snapped!

[@CosmoQueen2900]

Well damn I didn't even know burns like that existed in that time 😂

[@satyrosphilbrucato9140]

Not until I saw the terra cotta warriors touring exhibit about eight years ago did I realize that the technologies of assembly lines, standardized parts, and mass production of goods with interchangeable modular elements are Chinese innovation that date back several centuries Before Christ. We Yanks were, of course, taught that those are modern inventions of the Industrial Age occurring roughly TWO MILLENNIA later.

[@deepanshukapoor8591]

Lots of love and respect to u and ur team sir 😁🙏 always learn something new frm u❤

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

"The Four Great Chinese Inventions -- compass, gun-powder, paper, and print -- are legendary. Less talked about are meritocracy and banknotes." -- Thorsten J. Pattberg

[@thumpyloudfoot864]

Catellus 16 reminds of that scene in Training Day when Jake (Ethan Hawke) is "playing cards" with a local Latino gang.... IYKYK

[@mohammedsaysrashid3587]

It was an informative and thrilled watching video ..thanks for sharing