Small Inventions? They Changed How People Lived in the Hellenistic Age

Knowledge and technology have advanced throughout history in uneven spasms. The Neolithic dawn (eighth to seventh millennia B.C.E.^a) was one such time. The Italian Renaissance (14th century C.E.) was another.

Between these two spikes in the graph was the Hellenistic period (336–44 B.C.E.),^b in many ways greater than both. The Italian Renaissance, for example, was distinguished by advances in knowledge (and a burst of extraordinary creativity in the arts), but this only laid the foundation for an industrial revolution 200 years later. By comparison, the Hellenistic period witnessed a full industrial flourishing. Only when we view the Hellenistic period in the light of what went before and what came after can we fully appreciate what a remarkable age it was.