Ancient Technology - (Greenwood Guides to Historic Events of the Ancient World) by John Humphrey (Hardcover)

About the Book

Since ancient times, technological advances have increased man's chances for survival. From the practicality of a Roman aqueduct to the art of the written word, man has always adapted his environment to meet his needs, and to provide himself with sustenance, comfort, comfort, leisure, a higher quality of living, and a thriving culture. This concise reference source takes a closer look at six technological events that significantly impacted the evolution of civilization, from the Palaeolithic age to the height of the Roman Empire. As he touches on the common elements of ancient technology--energy, machines, mining, metallurgy, ceramics, agriculture, engineering, transportation, and communication--Humphrey asks questions central to understanding the impact of ancient tools on the modern world: What prompts change? What cultural traditions inhibit change? What effect do these changes have on their societies and civilization?

Humphrey explores technologies as both physical tools and as extensions of the human body, beginning with the invention of the Greek alphabet and including such accomplishments as early Neolithic plant cultivation, the invention of coinage, the building of the Parthenon, and Rome's urban water system. Detailed line drawings of tools and machines make ancient mechanics more easily accessible. Primary documents, glossary, biographies, and a timeline dating from the Palaeolithic age to the Roman Empire round out the work, making this an ideal reference source for understanding the tools of the ancient world.

Book Synopsis

Since ancient times, technological advances have increased man's chances for survival. From the practicality of a Roman aqueduct to the art of the written word, man has always adapted his environment to meet his needs, and to provide himself with sustenance, comfort, comfort, leisure, a higher quality of living, and a thriving culture. This concise reference source takes a closer look at six technological events that significantly impacted the evolution of civilization, from the Palaeolithic age to the height of the Roman Empire. As he touches on the common elements of ancient technology--energy, machines, mining, metallurgy, ceramics, agriculture, engineering, transportation, and communication--Humphrey asks questions central to understanding the impact of ancient tools on the modern world: What prompts change? What cultural traditions inhibit change? What effect do these changes have on their societies and civilization?

Humphrey explores technologies as both physical tools and as extensions of the human body, beginning with the invention of the Greek alphabet and including such accomplishments as early Neolithic plant cultivation, the invention of coinage, the building of the Parthenon, and Rome's urban water system. Detailed line drawings of tools and machines make ancient mechanics more easily accessible. Primary documents, glossary, biographies, and a timeline dating from the Palaeolithic age to the Roman Empire round out the work, making this an ideal reference source for understanding the tools of the ancient world.

Review Quotes

"Roman historian and archaeologist Humphrey surveys both physical and ideological/linguistic inventions of the ancient Mediterranean societies in this volume. Illustrations accompany text explaining the context and use of technologies in the categories of food and clothing, water, shelter and security, transportation and coinage, recordkeeping and timekeeping, and crafts that developed between the Archaic era in Greece and the height of the Roman Empire. Additionally, one section provides brief biographies of known inventors of the time, and another contains 54 topical primary documents, including instructions for constructing a plow and building a Roman aqueduct." --SciTech Book News//Art Book News Annual 2007

About the Author

JOHN W. HUMPHREY is a Roman historian and archaeologist at the University of Calgary. He is co-author of Greek and Roman Technology: A Sourcebook (1998), a volume of translated and annotated ancient texts that describe the technical history of the Greeks and Romans. He has excavated at four sites in Greece and Turkey, and has traveled extensively throughout the Mediterranean, studying and photographing contemporary examples of ancient technologies.