system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How recently did we discover/understand evaporation?

Were people 10,000 years ago like, "Yo, Where did my water go?"
What theories did we have about evaporation before we knew what was actually happening?
gpt
There's evidence of large organised Salt production facilities dating back 5000 years or more. The easiest method for salt generation in Ancient cultures would have been to flood salt flats with water, dam them and wait for the water to evaporate.

Evaporation needs to be well understood (i.e. what environmental conditions it works in) to exploit this.

Presumably Evaporation was understood on a 'cottage industry' level WELL before this, as methods tend to develop and mature over time.