Ancient Egyptians developed basin irrigation as an agricultural technique.

The Antikythera Mechanism used precisely cut, independently rotating gears in a system known as epicyclic gearing, a technology not otherwise known to exist in the West for another 1,500 years.

Ancient Roman concrete, used in structures like the Pantheon, has proven remarkably durable, in part because lime clasts and reactions with seawater form self-healing mineral phases (Al-tobermorite and phillipsite) that reinforce the material over centuries.

A 25-foot-wide, nearly 8-foot-deep pit carved into Göbekli Tepe's bedrock may have served as a cistern, while a carved channel found about 150 yards away was identified as early plumbing for collecting rainwater.

Göbekli Tepe's carved megaliths are about 11,000 years old, roughly 6,000 years older than Stonehenge, and were made before the people who built them had developed metal tools or pottery.

Ancient Egypt began using arithmetic, algebra, and geometry shortly after Sumer, Akkad, and Assyria, around 3000 BC.

Archaeologist Klaus Schmidt and colleagues estimated that at least 500 people were needed to quarry, transport, and erect Göbekli Tepe's 10- to 50-ton stone pillars, some moved from locations as far as a quarter-mile away.

Göbekli Tepe's largest circular structures were dated to at least 11,000 years ago, making them the earliest known monumental structures built by humans at the time of their discovery.

Archaeologists in Zambia found the world's oldest known wooden structure: two interlocking logs connected by a notch, dating to about 476,000 years ago.

Göbekli Tepe's circular structures and T-shaped pillars are more than 12,000 years old, predating both agriculture and pottery.

A nondescript lump recovered from the Antikythera wreck turned out to be a complex assembly of interlocking gears and plates, but missing parts mean the mechanism's full function remains unknown.

The St. Francis Dam in California, built by self-taught engineer William Mulholland, was constructed on a defective foundation with the surrounding canyon geology ignored.

Ancient Egyptian civilization relied on the Nile River's dependable seasonal flooding for agriculture.

Archaeologist Laura Dietrich analyzed more than 8,000 grinding tools from Göbekli Tepe, along with hundreds of stone vessels, including vessels large enough to produce 43 gallons of beer or porridge.

Archimedes used methods involving infinitesimals to calculate areas and volumes long before the formal development of calculus.

Research released by Ateneo de Manila University suggests prehistoric people in the Philippines and Island Southeast Asia may have had the capability of building sophisticated seafaring boats far earlier than previously expected.

Göbekli Tepe contains huge stone vessels capable of holding more than 40 gallons of liquid.

Some of Göbekli Tepe's carved stone vessels were large enough to hold 43 gallons of beer or porridge.

Göbekli Tepe's monumental construction began around 9000 B.C., centuries before the first domesticated grains appeared at nearby settlements.

Geomagnetic surveys conducted in 2003 revealed at least 20 stone rings buried beneath Göbekli Tepe.

Smaller versions of Göbekli Tepe's pillars, symbols, and architecture have been found in settlements up to 125 miles away.

Kathleen Martínez's team discovered a submerged port from Cleopatra's era near the Egyptian temple of Taposiris Magna, where divers mapped polished floors, towering columns, and anchors beneath the Mediterranean.

Göbekli Tepe was constructed in two stages: the oldest structures date to the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic A period, ending around 9000 B.C., while the later, less elaborate Pre-Pottery Neolithic B remains date to about 8000 B.C.

In ancient Italy, even small rivers would overflow and swamp the surrounding terrain during the annual melt of mountain snow.

Hero of Alexandria, a Greek-Egyptian mathematician and engineer, described the aeolipile in the 1st century CE.

Stonehenge's altar stone originated in Scotland, hundreds of miles from Salisbury Plain, weighs more than six tons, and was transported approximately 4,600 years ago, probably without the use of wheels.

Göbekli Tepe was built by hunter-gatherers, probably living there year-round, who cut, shaped and moved limestone pillars of up to about 10 tons over distances of roughly 100 to 500 meters without wheels or pack animals.

Ground-penetrating radar and geomagnetic surveys at Göbekli Tepe mapped at least 16 additional buried megalith rings across 22 acres, while the excavated area covers only about one acre, less than 5 percent of the site.

Ancient Egypt began using arithmetic, algebra, and geometry for taxation, commerce, trade, and astronomy shortly after Mesopotamia did, around 3000 BC.

Archaeologists found floors made of burnt lime and clay inside the stone circles at Göbekli Tepe, the earliest such floors ever discovered.