HashThat!

A Hazy Beginning

Welcome to 5000 years ago. A time when cryptography was merely a preschooler. This is the time of Julius Caesar and Polybius, a time when cryptography found its place in everything from luring the unsuspecting passerbys to utter a prayer for the dead in an attempt to read out the rather puzzling piece of text, to writing 'auto-biographies' on stone.

Watch our interactive map to find out the contribution of various countries to cryptography’s rich and diverse history. Read about the tools and devices used in this age from the Polybius square to the Caesar cipher to swallow post! Although these mechanisms may seem really simple, if it wasn’t for them the complex concepts that exist today would have never found their firm roots.

So a hazy beginning it might have been, but a firm one it was.

Down The Ages

• Down The Ages Home
• A Hazy Beginning
  • Roots and Origins
  • Tools and Devices
  • People
• The Political Force
• The Wars