Medieval games: Women playing chess Early medieval games: Dice, checkers, chess The games of medieval Europe were mainly the same as those of Egypt, Greece, and Rome: dice, knucklebones, marbles, checkers. But there were some new games, too. [...]
Qing dynasty court lady reading a handwritten scroll (probably 1700s AD) Printing with movable type first began in China about 1000 AD. It caught on when European printers combined movable type with [...]
History of printing: Wong Jei's block-printed scroll, 868 AD Writing by hand For four thousand years after the invention of writing in Iraq, all writing was done by hand, a character at [...]
History of paper: Early Chinese paper Paper invented in China Since the invention of writing, people had been trying to come up with something easier to write on than papyrus or parchment, and also [...]
Early Japanese literature: A copy of the Kojiki from the 1300s AD Printing and paper in Japan Just after 700 AD, the Japanese Empress Genmei ordered her staff to write and publish Japan's [...]
Model of the Empress Genmei's imperial audience hall at Heijo, Nara Empress Genmei moved the capital of Japan to the new planned city of Nara in 710 AD. She wanted the move [...]
An early playing card (Ming Dynasty, ca. 1500 AD) People in T'ang Dynasty China made the first playing cards, about 800 AD. They used their new material, paper, to make [...]
Chinese science: a double-action piston box bellows (China) What are some Chinese inventions? Chinese scientists started inventing a lot of new things around 500 BC, during the Warring States period. [...]
Early Chinese literature: an oracle bone with Chinese characters written on it When did people start to write in China? People in China started to write about 1500 BC, more than a [...]
