Science

=== Early history<span class="anchor" id="Earliest roots"></span> ===
{{Main|History of science in early cultures}}
[[File:Plimpton_322.jpg|thumb|The [[Plimpton 322|Plimpton 322 tablet]] by the [[Babylonia]]ns records [[Pythagorean triple]]s, written in about 1800 BCE|alt=Clay tablet with markings, three columns for numbers and one for ordinals]]
Science has no single origin. Rather, systematic methods emerged gradually over the course of tens of thousands of years,<ref name="cognitive-basis">{{Citation |last=Carruthers |first=Peter |title=The roots of scientific reasoning: infancy, modularity and the art of tracking |date=2002-05-02 |work=The Cognitive Basis of Science |pages=73–96 |editor-last=Carruthers |editor-first=Peter |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511613517.005 |isbn=978-0-521-81229-0 |editor2-last=Stich |editor2-first=Stephen |editor3-last=Siegal |editor3-first=Michael}}</ref><ref name="causal-cognition">{{Cite journal |last1=Lombard |first1=Marlize |last2=Gärdenfors |first2=Peter |year=2017 |title=Tracking the Evolution of Causal Cognition in Humans |journal=Journal of Anthropological Sciences |volume=95 |issue=95 |pages=219–234 |doi=10.4436/JASS.95006 |pmid=28489015 |issn=1827-4765}}</ref> taking different forms around the world, and few details are known about the very earliest developments. [[Women in science|Women]] likely played a central role in prehistoric science,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Graeber |first1=David |last2=Wengrow |first2=David |author-link1=David Graeber |author-link2=David Wengrow |date=2021 |title=[[The Dawn of Everything]] |page=248 }}</ref> as did [[Ritual#Religious perspectives|religious rituals]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Faerie Smith Meets the Bronze Industry: Magic Versus Science in the Interpretation of Prehistoric Metal-Making |jstor=124782 |last1=Budd |first1=Paul |last2=Taylor |first2=Timothy |journal=World Archaeology |year=1995 |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=133–143 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1995.9980297 }}</ref> Some scholars use the term "[[protoscience]]" to label activities in the past that resemble modern science in some but not all features;<ref>{{cite book|last=Tuomela |first=Raimo |year=1987 |chapter=Science, Protoscience, and Pseudoscience |editor-last1=Pitt |editor-first1=J.C. |editor-last2=Pera |editor-first2=M. |title=Rational Changes in Science |series=Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science |volume=98 |pages=83–101 |publisher=Springer |location=Dordrecht |doi=10.1007/978-94-009-3779-6_4|isbn=978-94-010-8181-8 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1086/599864 |first=Pamela H. |last=Smith |title=Science on the Move: Recent Trends in the History of Early Modern Science |journal=Renaissance Quarterly |volume=62 |number=2 |year=2009 |pages=345–375|pmid=19750597 |s2cid=43643053 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fleck |first=Robert |date=March 2021 |title=Fundamental Themes in Physics from the History of Art |journal=Physics in Perspective |language=en |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=25–48 |doi=10.1007/s00016-020-00269-7 |bibcode=2021PhP....23...25F |s2cid=253597172 |issn=1422-6944|doi-access=free }}</ref> however, this label has also been criticized as denigrating,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Scott |first=Colin |encyclopedia=The Postcolonial Science and Technology Studies Reader |title=Science for the West, Myth for the Rest? |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham |editor-last=Harding |editor-first=Sandra |isbn=978-0-8223-4936-5 |year=2011 |oclc=700406626 |page=175 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv11g96cc.16 }}</ref> or too suggestive of [[Presentism (historical analysis)|presentism]], thinking about those activities only in relation to modern categories.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1177/007327531205000203 |first=Peter |last=Dear |title=Historiography of Not-So-Recent Science |journal=History of Science |volume=50 |number=2 |year=2012 |pages=197–211|s2cid=141599452 }}</ref>

Direct evidence for scientific processes becomes clearer with the advent of [[writing systems]] in early civilizations like [[Ancient Egypt]] and [[Mesopotamia]], creating the earliest written records in the [[history of science]] in around 3000 to 1200 [[Common Era|BCE]].<ref name=Lindberg2007a/>{{rp|pp=12–15}}<ref name="Grant2007a" /> Although the words and concepts of "science" and "nature" were not part of the conceptual landscape at the time, the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians made contributions that would later find a place in Greek and medieval science: mathematics, astronomy, and medicine.<ref>{{cite book|last1= Rochberg|first1= Francesca|author-link=Francesca Rochberg|editor1-last= Shank|editor1-first= Michael|editor2-last= Numbers|editor2-first= Ronald|editor3-last= Harrison|editor3-first= Peter|title= Wrestling with Nature: From Omens to Science|date= 2011|publisher= University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|isbn= 978-0-226-31783-0|page= 9|chapter= Ch.1 Natural Knowledge in Ancient Mesopotamia}}</ref><ref name=Lindberg2007a/>{{rp|p=12}} From the 3rd millennium BCE, the ancient Egyptians developed a [[Decimal#Origin|decimal numbering system]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krebs |first=Robert E. |title=Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0313324338 |pages=127}}</ref> solved practical problems using [[geometry]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Erlich |first1=Ḥaggai |author-link=Haggai Erlich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LcsJosc239YC&q=egyptian%20geometry%20Nile&pg=PA80 |title=The Nile: Histories, Cultures, Myths |last2=Gershoni |first2=Israel |date=2000 |publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers |isbn=978-1-55587-672-2 |pages=80–81 |language=en |quote=The Nile occupied an important position in Egyptian culture; it influenced the development of mathematics, geography, and the calendar; Egyptian geometry advanced due to the practice of land measurement "because the overflow of the Nile caused the boundary of each person's land to disappear." |access-date=January 9, 2020 |archive-date=May 31, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220531025639/https://books.google.com/books?id=LcsJosc239YC&q=egyptian+geometry+Nile&pg=PA80 |url-status=live }}</ref> and developed a [[Egyptian calendar|calendar]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Telling Time in Ancient Egypt |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tell/hd_tell.htm |access-date=May 27, 2022 |website=The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |archive-date=March 3, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303133140/https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tell/hd_tell.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Their healing therapies involved drug treatments and the supernatural, such as prayers, [[incantation]]s, and rituals.<ref name=Lindberg2007a/>{{rp|p=9}}

The ancient [[Mesopotamia]]ns used knowledge about the properties of various natural chemicals for manufacturing [[pottery]], [[faience]], glass, soap, metals, [[lime plaster]], and waterproofing.<ref name="McIntosh2005">{{cite book|last1= McIntosh|first1= Jane R.|author-link= Jane McIntosh|title= Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspectives|date= 2005|publisher= ABC-CLIO|location= Santa Barbara, California, Denver, Colorado, and Oxford, England|isbn= 978-1-57607-966-9|pages= 273–76|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9veK7E2JwkUC&q=science+in+ancient+Mesopotamia|access-date= October 20, 2020|archive-date= February 5, 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210205162758/https://books.google.com/books?id=9veK7E2JwkUC&q=science+in+ancient+Mesopotamia|url-status= live}}</ref> They studied [[animal physiology]], [[anatomy]], [[animal behavior|behavior]], and [[astrology]] for [[divination|divinatory]] purposes.<ref>{{Cite journal |title= Scientific Astronomy in Antiquity|last= Aaboe|first= Asger|author-link= Asger Aaboe|journal= [[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society]]|volume= 276|issue= 1257|date= May 2, 1974|pages= 21–42|doi=10.1098/rsta.1974.0007|bibcode=1974RSPTA.276...21A|jstor= 74272|s2cid= 122508567}}</ref> The Mesopotamians had an [[Babylonian medicine|intense interest in medicine]] and the earliest [[medical prescription]]s appeared in [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] during the [[Third Dynasty of Ur]].<ref name="McIntosh2005" /><ref>{{cite journal |title= Medicine, Surgery, and Public Health in Ancient Mesopotamia |first= R D. |last= Biggs |journal=Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies |volume= 19 |number= 1 |year= 2005 |pages= 7–18}}</ref> They seem to have studied scientific subjects which had practical or religious applications and had little interest in satisfying curiosity.<ref name="McIntosh2005" />