Five Ancient "Innovations" that Set Humanity Back

Agriculture, metal work, and agriculture.

"Innovations that set humanity back" I am certain that someday in the future, we will look back and put social media in that category.

"Torture wasn't common until the earliest Catholic Inquisitions. . ." The Ancient World would like to argue about that one.

Surprised mercury wasn't on the list. Love how so many cultures went "this is a bit weird, I think we should eat it / smear it on ourselves"

The thing you didn’t mention about torture is how bad it is for getting reliable information. If you torture someone, they’ll most likely tell you what they think you want to hear to make the torture stop, regardless of whether it’s true. A person who doesn’t know an answer will make one up. The best interrogators form a rapport with their target and have conversations where they’re able to pick out valuable information that’s let out, sometimes unwittingly.

One correction: As far as swords, knives, etc. are concerned, modern steels are FAR superior to Damascus steel. The particular process might be lost, but the end product, although pretty, would be demolished by a modern reproduction. And anyone can buy a reproduction sword online today from numerous makers, including some superb ones for under US$1,000, that are more durable and effective than any sword owned by any medieval king.

The thing with Roman lead poisoning: They not only used lead pipes and lead containers for their wine, but even used some lead compounds to sweeten their wine, because certain lead alloys tasted sweet, so that added even more lead to their system.

The bit about the fresh flowers is fantastic! I love how even in ancient times people were looking for a way to tell the tax man to go do one!

Torture didn't start/become widespread only after the inquisition. Ancient civilization, expecially the Assyrians, were very, VERY inventive on their methods.

Torture is as old as the hills in most every culture. It did not begin with the Catholic Inquisition.

No dig on Simon, when ever someone talks about how much alcohol people used to drink, remember that getting fresh water and keeping it uncontaminated are modern things. Tainted water killed people all the time. Alcohol on the other had killed most bacteria and stayed drinkable longer.

Simon did you really say torture didnt exist until the middle ages? Ummm crucifixion? The seasaw? Execution ad glatium?

Pretty sure earlier horse harnesses didn't set back anyone as it was still more useful than having no harness at all. If you call an invention a setback just because a more efficient version of it came around later on then you could include almost every human invention in this list.

As a note, Damascus steel was not "superior to modern attempts." It was a lot better compared to most other contemporary steel alloys, but many modern ones are still better. Modern metallurgy is damn impressive, and Damascus has even been recreated artificially at this point, where the original could be considered partially down to the luck of happening to mine in the right spot. At least where the iconic look was concerned. Also your shot was a pattern-welded blade, not true Damascus, but that's another matter.

To further expand on "slash and burn farming," you also need "crop rotation." Today, farmers do field burns, but the thing to pay attention to is how they nearly always plant something different on that field next season, and so on. Planting the same thing on that field only depletes the nutrients in the soil, making it as useful as concrete. Every second or third year, you need to plant something which ADDS nutrients to the soil. On a smaller scale, you can see the same phenomenon in your home garden. Every year, you need to rotate the garden. Every second or third plot needs to be some type of bean or pea, so when you rotate the garden every year, that plot now has something which fertilizes the ground. You fail to do that, and the ground will be as useful as concrete. In conclusion, the simple fact of burning fields is not what makes the fields useless. What makes the fields useless is nutrient depletion, caused by planting the same crop on the same field every year.

A word on lead, and chemistry in general. All chemistry relies mostly on its valence band of electrons. That's the outer most orbital. That's why everyday table salt, sodium chloride (NaCl), is relatively harmless, and actually needed, in modest amounts. Yet pure sodium metal is extremely reactive, reacts violently, when exposed to water, and chlorine (chloride) in pure form is a poisonous gas. That's all due to the way they are bonded; the valence. Pure lead metal is quite benign. So are mercury, and even gold. Yet, all three of these metals when reacted with other elements, such as lead sulfides, they become toxic. Lead is mostly non-reactive, but will react when exposed to acids, such as those in wine. Holding lead solder in your teeth is way less dangerous than inhaling flakes of old lead based paint, as in the paint, its a lead oxide. Gold is usually considered safe, because it barely reacts with anything. But if you do, its extremely toxic.

Torture was definitely common before the 1300s.

Horses use their throats to breathe. Brilliant. You are also very engrossing, I love your videos. Thank you to YouTube for coming across your channel many moons ago, and thank you for making one.

9:40 But that's just objectively incorrect? We have numerous records of instances of Ancient civilizations employing utterly horrific methods with shocking regularity. The brass bull, the boats, flaying, etc, etc just to name a few. The Romans in particular enjoyed the spectacle of execution of dissidents by wild animals. These all predate the Catholic Church by quite some time.

Lead pipes. The periodic-table symbol for lead is "Pb"... which is short for "Plumbum"... it's where we get the word "plumbing".