As the human race began to move away from caves and simple settlements, the age of the Empire and Civilisation began. The Indus Valley Civilisation, Persia, China and the Greeks are the first to establish themselves as coherent social structures. Once all of the immediate military threats were gone and the supply of food and water were secured the inhabitants of the cities and large towns were able to think. They began to ponder the world around them and how they could use it. They also started to question the existence, or reasoning of the Gods, and how their societies came to work and could they be improved?

Image credit

In this way the first laboratories were created. The Greek mathematician Pythagoras is reckoned the first as archaeological evidence of his home suggests he had one. This also relates to records of his studies into sound and vibration. The Alchemist and Apothecary that developed through the medieval period into the 1700’s are generally reckoned to be the fledgling lab as the occupants made up concoctions and tried to turn lead into Gold. One was accidentally discovered in what was the Holy Roman Empire. Called the Speculum Alchemiae  it dates to the 16th Century. Given the political turmoil around the time its users would have needed Lab Relocation Services like those from https://www.aportglobal.com/relocation/.

Image credit

Louis Pastuer is painted as being in a laboratory, with no PPE in evidence obviously, experimenting with test tubes.