The 20th century has spawned many of the clever machines, labour-saving devices, feats of engineering and advance technology that we take for granted - or did it? Did you know that plastic surgery was being performed in India by the 1st century BC or that ancient Greeks used an early form of computer? This book reveals that some of humankind's inventions actually date back thousands of years. Organized thematically, it covers everything from medicine to communication, from food to drugs to city life, from military equipment to sport and lesiure, and from transportation to sexuality. The book features odd facts and curiousities and celebrates the endless inventiveness of the human mind.