c. 6,000 BCE
Technology
Southwest Asia
Woven cloth loom
Warp-weighted looms turn spun thread into cloth at scale.
Why it mattered
Textiles became the first mass-manufactured good.
Stone Age
6,000 BCE
3 recorded milestones at this point in the record.
c. 6,000 BCE
Agriculture
Caucasus
Wine making at Areni and Hajji Firuz
Residues in jars from the Caucasus and Zagros record deliberate grape fermentation.
Why it mattered
Fermentation preserved calories and became central to ritual and trade.
c. 6,000 BCE
Technology
China
Silk in China
Traces of silk protein in Yangshao tombs show silkworms were already reeled and woven.
Why it mattered
Founded an industry that later financed a continent-spanning trade route.
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Nearby in the record
c. 7,000 BCEAgriculture
Irrigation canals
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Copper smelting
Balkans and Anatolia
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Cheese making
Central Europe
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The plough
Mesopotamia
c. 5,500 BCEAgriculture
Sorghum and pearl millet in the Sahel
Sahel
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Copper smelting at Belovode
Balkans