Figure 01: Models in the history of mankind

 

see also in German:           Chronologie der Modellverwendung und Modellherstellung (comprehensive)

                                               Modellgeschichte in Kurzform

 

 

In short we can show the history of the construction and use of models with some milestones:

 

BC; since

 

10 million          development of consciousness [Schurig, 1976]

5 million            idea of causality [Garre, 1982]; matriarchy [Fester et al., 1979]

3 million            archetypes [Stevens, 1982]

2.5 million         construction and use of real and mental models (tools, weapons, shelter, foraging, social life, morale)

1.5 million         encounter with transcendency coincides with mastering the fire [Hediger, 1980; Konner, 1982];
rudimentary ideas of symmetry and measure [Wynn, 1989]; methodic procedure in toolmaking [Gowlett, 1985]

500,000            geometric sense [Gowlett, 1985]; dimensional sense for perspective and congruence [Wynn, 1989]; symbolc activities: notation of a calendar, calculations [Marshack, 1972, 1976];
speech (?),  cult  (?), cannibalism (?)

300,000            first world model: a ball [König, 1980]

100,000            refined world model: line cross – the four cardinal points [König, 1980];
rituals for funerals

60,000              humanity (relief and  piety) [Soelcki, 1971, 1972]; scientific interest [Leroi-Gourhan, 1964]; target-oriented schooloing [Festinger, 1985]

30,000              „creative explosion“: sketches, art, adornment, instruments, weapons [e. g. Pfeiffer, 1982]

6000                 small-scale models of buildings in Eastern Europe [Gimbutas, 1974], Çatal Hüyük: shrines, loam bricks, seals

4000                 metal casting; children’s toys
small-scale models of herds of animals and dyads, of ships, of vehicles

3000                 myths, gardens, processions with models;
groundplans, cylinder seals; baking tins

750                   written documents of model construction and use: Scriptures, later Greek and Roman authors

540                   Xenophanes: reflexion on the construction and use of models

450                   architectural competitive tender in Greece

410                   painter Zeuxis uses five female models

370/340            Platon on idea, archtype, pattern, model

                          illustrated books for instruction [Meissner, 1999];
Romans: „cerae“ and „effigies“ (figures and portraits in wax)

 

AD; since

 

900                   first preserved pattern book

1092                 Roscellinus is urged by Anselm to revoke his extreme nominalism

1122/23            Theophilus Prespbyter: „De diversis artibus“ (first manual for the artistic active goldsmith and metal craftsman)

1235                 Villard de Honnecourt: lodge-book

1300                 anatomical wax models; swatches of textiles; fashion dolls;
Duns Scotus, Wilhelm of Ockham: conceptualism

1353-1420       drawings and models for the construction of the Dome of Florence

1450-90           first theories of models in architecture: Leon Battista Alberti; Antonio Averlino detto Filarete; Franceso di Giorgio Martini

1489-1519       Leonardo da Vinci uses a plentitude of analogies, draws, constructs and uses various models [Nicodemi, 1939]

1494                 Luca Pacioli: „Summa“ (Platonic Solids)

 

1600                 scientific experimentation (Simon Stevin, Cornelius Drebbel, William Gilbert);
periodic press;

                          utopias of Tommaso Campanella („City of the Sun“) and Francis Bacon („New Atlantis“)

1612                 Simon Sturtevant: „Heuretica“ (first theory of scale-models)

1628-58           Jan Comenius: visual education [Ferguson 1992]

1780                 sandpit exercises

1790-1880       American patent models

1820-1905       visualisation and analogies in the natural sciences

1840                 industrial mass production: colts, machines, furniture

1870                 bionics (Simon Schwendener, Carl Culmann)

 

1915/34/54      „theory of models“ in mathematics/ logic

1920                 Karel Capek: „R. U. R. Rossum’s Universal Robot“

1938                 first scientific robot (Thomas Ross)

1950                 on computers; simulation and popular games
Operational/ Operations Research, Systems Analysis;
quality control

1957                 Systems Engineering; Network planning (CPM; PERT)

1960                 Computer Aided Design (CAD); software engineering;
numerically controlled (NC) industry robots

1971-75           first video games; „first-person shooter“ games; artificial and animated worlds in role-paying games

1992/93            world wide web (www) with browsers; internet: „symbolic net“, „hypermedia“, „cyberspace“