https://at-ceu.studyguide.timeedit.net/modules/HISU5575?type=COREScience has been a driving force behind human civilisation. From the earliest periods, the craft products, agriculture, transportation, and military equipment required methodologies of production. The experience led to increasingly refined methods of manufacturing. At a point that coincided with the emergence of the great early civilisations of the Fertile Crescent, Egypt, India, and China, to mention only the dominant centres, it became an indispensable force. The course cannot cover all these developments. Still, it attempts to engage with the character of the development of the sciences in the Mediterranean realm, beginning with the emergence of abstract sciences in the Hellenistic period and then with the Medieval achievements (encompassing both the Latin West, Byzantium, and the Islamic realms).Ancient and pre-modern science was not naïve, even if some of its facets became inadequate, or even strange, in the light of modern science. However, there were remarkable discoveries and significant conceptual developments. Copernicus' and Galileo's achievements were preceded by preparatory steps. The course offers an introductory overview of the most significant ancient and premodern achievements, explaining how nature and its workings were understood and systematised.