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The Medieval Packaging: The era of hunters and gatherers

The packaging is an ancient industry dating back to around 5000 B.C. when the humans were merely hunters and gatherers. The very first need for packaging was felt for the transportation of left over food form one place to another.  The movement of tribes and own survival forced them to invent some sort of containers to contain and carry the food, water and tools with them and hence the hard shelled fruits were prized as their first containers.

When the earlier cities were domesticated a plethora of packaging materials were used for storage, transportation and protect the essential items.

Early protective packaging designs were made of plant leaves and animal skin as they were easily available in the proximity.



Bottle Gourds


Nuts and bottle gourds were used by these prehistoric people and radiocarbon dating indicates their presence in the Americas by 10,000 years ago.


                                                          

The ancient Egyptians were the first to industrialize glass containers as water pots around 1500 B.C.
Initially the pots were colored and it took for another sheer 500 years to produce transparent glass.



Woven sacks and baskets made from a variety of plants to protect the food items.



Hollow woods were used for liquid storage.


The cities were epicenter of innovation and some inventions like wooden barrel enabled people to store food and water in bulk for a long amount of time.

After the fall of the Rome the degree of improvement became almost stagnant and time prepared itself for the industrial revolution.

A famous quote by James Fenimore Cooper says that the “History, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness.” reminds us that these prehistoric humans were the hero's of that time which could pioneer the packaging of that time and led the foundations of the modern packaging that we use today.
 












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