500 ce

Construction

After the Anasazi occupy the "four corners" region, they begin to make their first true houses, domes of logs plastered with mud laid horizontally around a saucerlike excavation. See also 400 ce Construction.

Because of an increase in rainfall at this time in Europe, low-lying regions, such as what is now the Netherlands, begin to flood; where before people lived and farmed on "islands" in swamps, water rising as much as 10 cm (4 in.) per century causes people to build dikes around their "islands" to maintain their land. Gradually this process leads to diking and draining swamps to make new arable land.

The Mogollon people (New Mexico) make pit houses, with living areas sunk a meter or two (3 to 5 ft) below grade and the single room covered over with a sloping roof of mud-coated branches and thatch supported by timbers. See also 400 ce Construction.

Chinese farmers of this time already employ practices such as planting crops in rows, hoeing weeds, and using manure from farm animals as fertilizer on crops. Such advances will not be used in the West until the 18th century.

About this time Iranian monks smuggle domesticated silkworm eggs from China to Constantinople, reviving a western tradition of silk manufacture that had languished since classical times because the cocoons of the wild silkworm moths did not yield very good fiber. But most silk continues to be imported from China, even though local cultivation continues after this time. See also 53 bce Materials; 1260 ce Materials.

People in South America, notably the Manteño culture (Ecuador), manufacture thin copper axe heads that apparently are used as a form of money up and down the west coast of the Americas (some are found as far north as Mexico). The axes are too thin to be used as tools or weapons. See also 100 ce Materials.

The abacus is used in Europe, although counting boards based on the same principle had been used by the ancient Greeks and Romans as much as a thousand years earlier. See also 300 ce Mathematics.

The most elaborate water clock ever constructed in the West is built at Gaza near the frontier between Egypt and Palestine (Israel). As a statue of Helios moves below a series of doors to mark the time, the hours are indicated by other statues beating gongs and popping from open doors. At day's end, a mechanical trumpet blows. See also 132 ce Astronomy.

Polynesian sailors reach Easter Island, the most remote island that they colonize. See also 200 bce Transportation.