35 Surprising Inventions That Have Been Around Longer Than You Thought

Autopilots on aircraft look like a modern comfort for the pilots, but they are as ancient as aircrafts themselves. In the early days of aviation, aircrafts required the continuous attention of a pilot to fly safely. The first aircraft autopilot was developed by Sperry Corporation in 1912. That is just 9 years after the Wright Brothers achieved first powered flight in 1903. This autopilot connected a gyroscopic heading indicator and attitude indicator to hydraulically operated elevators and rudder.

Foods similar to pizza have been made since the Neolithic age (10,200 - 4500 B.C.). If a pizza is “flat, baked bread,” then pizzas are as old as the ancient Babylonians. If a pizza is “flat, baked bread with toppings,” then they were invented in ancient Greece.

Neurosurgery is considered a highly specialized modern specialty, but Incas appear to have practiced a procedure known as trepanation since the late Stone Age. Trepanation is the surgical process of drilling a small hole in the skull to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases or release pressured blood buildup from an injury. During the Middle Ages in Arabia from 936 to 1013 AD, Al-Zahrawi performed surgical treatments of head injuries, skull fractures, spinal injuries, hydrocephalus, subdural effusions, and headache.

The earliest known forms of bowling date back to ancient Egypt. As early as 3200 B.C., balls made out of husks of grains and bound in leather and string were rolled along the ground to play a game similar to modern target bowl games. In Roman Empire about 2000 years ago a similar game was thriving, which eventually evolved into Italian Bocce or outdoor bowling. In about 400 A.D., bowling began in Germany as a religious ritual to cleanse oneself from sin by rolling a rock into a club (kegel).

Thousands of years before the modern procedure of electrotherapy was invented, the Ancient Romans successfully treated headaches and mental disorders with electroconvulsive therapy using electric fish.