600

Communication

A Maya ceramic vessel from about this time shows what appear to be pages from a complex book, suggesting that Maya books had been developing for several centuries; this is the oldest direct evidence of Maya books, of which only three are known today, all from around the 14th century. See also 300 ce Communication.

The Chinese print whole pages with woodblocks, although the earliest known surviving pages are from the 700s. See also 704 Communication.

The goose feather (quill) is used for writing at least by this time, since there is a mention of it in the writings of St. Isidore of Seville. Roman writers had used reed pens. See also 1565 Materials.

The Anasazi begin to make pit houses like those of the Mogollons, but Anasazi pit houses are improved by paving the floors, using stone to line the pits, and sometimes partitioning the house into several rooms. See also 500 ce Construction: 750 Construction.

Over 4250 m (14,000 ft) high in the Bolivian Andes, 20 km (12 mi) south of Lake Titicaca, people now known as the Tiahuanacans build the large shrine of Tiahuanaco, featuring a temple platform that is 15 m (50 ft) high and 200 m (656 ft) wide at its base, as well as the large, decorated Gateway of the Sun. The site is known for the excellence of its stone construction without mortar (famous for being so closely fitted that a knife blade cannot be inserted between the stones) and the size of the stone blocks, some weighing more than 90 metric tons (100 short tons). These blocks were quarried 5 km (3 mi) from the site. Although most of the construction is held together by its own weight, some stones are joined by bronze or copper clamps, apparently to earthquake-proof the structure. See also 19 bce Construction.

The earliest known windmills are built in Persia (Iran); they use a vertical shaft and horizontal sails, partially protected from the wind, to grind grain. See also 100 Tools; 1105 Energy.

In the Nazca region of what is now Peru, filtration galleries called puquios are built for irrigation purposes. Tunnels of the same general purpose and design as the qanats had been built to tap underground aquifers by the Assyrians and many subsequent inhabitants of dry regions, including the Spanish. When Spain colonizes the Nazca region, the conquistadores and their followers reintroduce the qanat to the region.

It is believed that forks are introduced for dining by the royal courts in the Middle East; such early forks had two tines and were a replacement for a second knife, previously used to skewer food while the first knife was used for cutting and lifting food. See also 1100 Food & agriculture.

About this time Zu Chong-Zhi and his son Zu Geng-Shi calculate π to be between 3.1415926 and 3.1415927. See also 635 Mathematics.

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