Content

Brief History of the Technologies Related to Mobility and Transportation

3000-500 BC: general features of society

• foraging / agriculture
• barter / commerce
• villages / cities
  • transportation and mobility are key factors in the choice of the location of the most successful urban settlements: Nineveh, Athens, Alexandria, Rome, etc.

3000-500 BCE: our focus

• Energy sources for
  • transportation
  • work
• Movement / mobility
• Productivity

3000-500 BCE: energy sources

• humans
• animals (horses, donkeys, mules, camels, oxen, elephants, dogs)
• water (shipping of goods, soldiers, humans)
• fire (mostly from wood, more rarely from coal, oil)
• wind (sails, often combined with rowing)
• gravity, pressure (irrigation systems, short aqueducts)

Newest and best ideas for efficiency / energy

• the wheel
  • carts
  • mobile weapons