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| Coffee and art combined |
What I
found interesting when I arrived at my top five was that three of them
related to our creative and artistic endeavours. That’s appropriate, I thought,
because it is our creativity, and artistry that contributes hugely towards our
sense of well-being and our pleasure in life. That last sentence may sound
intuitively, and logically, correct, yet the connection has been studied by
researchers. As an example, this study from Malaysia ‘demonstrates that
creativity is beneficial to subjective well-being.’1
Here are
my contenders for Five Best Inventions, in no particular order.
Painting. One of the favourite activities of
young children at home, in pre-school, or primary school is drawing. There
seems to be something innate about the activity that young children are drawn
to.
The
earliest known example of a drawing/painting by a human is that of a red hand
stencil in Maltravieso Cave in Spain and was made by a Neanderthal more than
64,000 years ago. The earliest known figurative paintings are in caves in
Indonesia and Borneo and are dated at more than 40,000 years old.
All
cultures appear to have invented painting in one form or another – whether on
rock, on wood, or on our own bodies. Painting allows us to be creative and
expressive, as well as being a medium for the communication of a thought, idea,
or story.
Painting
was possibly a precursor to carving which was initially etching like depictions
upon rock – petroglyphs being the technical term. The oldest of these
are found at Murujuga, Western Australia and are dated at 40,000 to 50,000
years old. The site was declared a World Heritage Site in July 2025.
Painting
and carving have undergone many changes and evolved differently in different
cultures. It has given us the elaborate masks of New Guinea, the beauty of the Sistine
Chapel, and the intricacy of Māori wood and greenstone carvings.
Painting
is a marvellous invention, and we don’t have to be children to continue to
enjoy viewing it or creating it.
Writing.
Writing may well
have evolved from painting. Writing enables us to tell stories and keep
accounts. In the last few millennia it has provided the means to some of the
world’s great literature. In western cultures, would we have a Shakespeare, an
Emily Brontë, or a Tolstoy if not for the invention of writing?
Sumerian
is thought to be the oldest written language, dating from about 3400 BCE. Early
writing from this culture was of a book-keeping style, and then the writing
down of poems or sagely advice from one generation to the next. The world’s
first written fictional story appears to be the Epic of Gilgamesh
written probably about 2100 BCE and, in poetic form, tells the tales of a
Sumerian king.
Today our
reading options are immense; somewhere between one million and four million
novels are published each year. All thanks to the invention of writing.
Drums. When we think of arts, then not
only does painting, sculpture, and literature come to mind, but so too does
music. The first musical instruments to be invented were undoubtedly percussion
instruments. The first membranophone (a drum constructed using a stretched
membrane) can be traced to China in the period from 5500 – 2350 BCE and using
alligator skins. Because skins tend to degrade, earlier drums may well have
been invented without leaving a trace in the archaeological record.
Drums and
drumming greatly enhance one of our other (human) artistic forms – dance. Today,
the variety of types of drums is immense. There are the drums of the symphony
orchestra, conga drums, the many drums of Africa, and in our modern age the
drum kit of rock bands.
Drums
continue to beat out the rhythms of dancing, marching, and are used in various
shamanic and in other ritualistic settings.
Bicycles.
As a means to
assist us getting around, the bicycle surely cannot be beaten. Its
environmental impact is insignificant, and it enables us to keep fit.
In 1817
the Dandy horse was invented – a two-wheeled machine that could be sat
upon, steered, and propelled by pushing along with the feet. The first bicycle
to incorporate a mechanical crank drive and pedals came into being in the
1860s.
Today,
there are more than one billion bicycles in the world. It is a popular form of
transport and gave rise to the sport of cycling. The Tour de France
cycling race (lasting three weeks) is considered to be the world’s biggest
annual sporting event, and certainly the most watched cycling event.
Coffee. After water, coffee vies with tea
for the second-most consumed beverage in the world. The number of cafés in the
world reaches into the tens (or even hundreds) of thousands. Shanghai is
believed to be the city with the highest number of cafés, with over 8,530 in
2024. Australia is home to 27,000 coffee cafés.
The exact date
of the invention of the coffee drink is indeterminate. Legend tells of an Ethiopian
goat-herder in the 6th century, named Kaldi, noticing that his goats
took a liking to the bean. By 1000 CE Arab traders were bringing the bean back
and cultivating it. By boiling the beans they created a drink they called qahwa
which meant that which prevents sleep. Qahwa appears to be where
we get the word coffee from.
Today more
than 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day globally. For many,
coffee is one of the world’s most pleasurable inventions.
So, get on
your bicycle, bike down to your local café for a coffee, perhaps write a letter
or poem whilst there, draw or paint a picture of your surroundings, or listen
to a busker playing the bongoes on the pavement outside the café. What could be
better?
Notes:
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