Transitioning from a hunter-gather lifestyle to one with stable agriculture was the defining advancement for early Humans entering into the Stone Age. By learning how to develop and grow their own crops, their population was able to remain stable, and healthy. The adoption of early stone tools, although crude, proved a remarkable advancement from using bare hands, or collecting stray twigs and stones from the ground as they roamed. Preparing basic axes, hoes, and pickaxes allowed the early humans to begin the chain of events that propelled them into the many technological advancements that have given us the luxury and comfort we enjoy today. 

Agriculture in the Stone age seemed chaotic and unreliable. From overcrowded pumpkin farms, to towering bamboo forests, it was clear that it was the goal of the early human to learn from simple trial-and-error. Whatever crops grew, grew strong and in plenty. Those that withered and died could be cast aside and forgotten.  

There is evidence that the early settlers of Ribbit Ridge farmed melons, vegetables, fruit trees, & bushes, as well as wood trees, some livestock, and perhaps even had made an attempt to tame wolves.

In the Early Metallurgy Age, metal parts were formed by beating heated ingots of metal, over an anvil with a hammer. These processes were slow but resulted in tools that far exceeded the early stone knapped tools of the pre-historical workshops. 

Alloying was discovered when copper and tin were mixed in a ceramic vessel and heated over a forge to form bronze. This new alloy shared a combination of properties from the two base metals it was made from. Its combined malleability and strength  made it an ideal material for constructing more advanced tools and precise equipment like gears. 

Eventually, ceramics improved enough to withstand the heat of the forge without chipping, and fire clay was formed by mixing local clays together with graphite. Archaeologists snapped this photograph of a late forge that had been equipped with ceramic channels designed to draw molten metals and alloys out of the crucible and into molds to form tools and ingots. 

The discovery of alloys jumpstarted a rapid chain of progression that eventually propelled our cave dwelling ancestors into the Late Metallurgy Age with the development of iron. Humans learned that simply smelting hematite or limonite into simple cast iron was not the strongest iteration of that metal that they could produce. A rudimentary bloomery was formed out of charcoal that superheated the metal into a slag that could be pounded down by mechanical hammers into useable wrought iron. 

This metal was further refined into simple versions of steel using the alloying techniques that had been passed down for generations this point, and a new invention, the blast furnace. This new furnace required more highly refined fuel to burn at higher temperatures, but could produce liquid steel. 

Subsequent iterations of the blast furnace pictured here were believed to have been equipped with a system that could drain the furnace of its still molten liquid metal, and pour it into ceramic casting channels to automatically cool the liquid steel in its ingot form. 

The earliest form of power known to have been harnessed by man was simple mechanical power. Mechanical power was first harnessed to operate machinery when a simple horse crank was connected to a grindstone that milled down ore and food into refinable powders. 

As technology progressed, it was discovered that wood could be treated with creosote to become water resistant. This allowed the formation of water wheels which eventually became the backbone of mechanical power production. Many water wheels of a similar design to these early ones are still being used in powerful technologically advanced builds such as the civic desalination plant, and even OREO4. 

Some of the earliest fuels used by humans were simple, raw combustibles like hay and logs. As the need for higher heats in blast furnaces and crucibles became more apparent, more refined fuels were discovered. The earliest of these were Creosote & Coke. When logs were placed in specialized furnaces, instead of producing charcoal, they would burn into coke fuel and secret a liquid called creosote. Creosote would later become a powerful fuel in the early days of boiler operations, but was mostly used for treating wood planks to allow them to resist water damage. Coke was the real gem of this process, and used to superheat iron ingots in a blast furnace to a brilliant white level so that they could be processed into steel.