What puzzles me about ancient humans is they were as smart as we are, so why did technology advance so slowly?
They spent more time surviving. Plus many 'discoveries' were likely accidents. Like, if you put even modern humans with knowledge of technology out in the wild how quickly do you think they'll be able to invent agriculture or work metals from minerals in rocks?
Much of survival work is drudgery, where one can think about other things while working. For example, I do my best work while jogging.
> Plus many 'discoveries' were likely accidents.
Of course. But those accidents come from playing with things to see what happens, and being curious enough to notice when something unexpected happens.
> Like, if you put even modern humans with knowledge of technology out in the wild how quickly do you think they'll be able to invent agriculture
Agriculture isn't hard to invent.
> or work metals from minerals in rocks?
Most of this comes from playing with fire. A lot, though, depends on higher temperatures which require a bellows. The idea for a bellows would come from simply blowing on embers to turn them into flames. Once you've got a bellows, you'll notice that the fire gets much hotter, and they you might throw various things in that hot fire to see what happens.
There are other things, like weaving, boats, sails, chimneys, etc., that make life easier and don't require metals.
Very few modern people, even engineers, have the faintest idea how to get iron out of ore, or would even recognize ore.