Ancient Technology (Greenwood Guides to Historic Events of the Ancient World)

246 Pages·2006·1.67 MB·English

by  John W. Humphrey

A T
NCIENT ECHNOLOGY
Greenwood Guides toHistoric Events ofthe AncientWorld
ThePeloponnesian War
Lawrence Tritle
TheReign ofCleopatra
StanleyBurstein
TheDecline and Fallof theRoman Empire
JamesW. Ermatinger
TheTrojanWar
Carol G.Thomas andCraig Conant
TheEmperor Justinianand the ByzantineEmpire
JamesAllan Evans
TheEstablishment oftheHan Empireand Imperial China
GrantHardyand AnneBehnke Kinney
TheEmergence ofBuddhism
Jacob N.Kinnard
A T
NCIENT ECHNOLOGY
John W. Humphrey
Greenwood Guides to Historic Events of the Ancient World
Bella Vivante, Series Editor
GREENWOOD PRESS
Westport, Connecticut (cid:1) London
LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Humphrey, JohnWilliam, 1946–
Ancient technology/ JohnW.Humphrey.
p.cm. —(Greenwoodguides tohistoric eventsof theancient world)
Includes bibliographicalreferences and index.
ISBN0–313–32763–7 (alk.paper)
1. Technology—History—To 1500. I. Title. II. Series.
T16.H86 2006
609.3—dc22 2006007915
BritishLibrary Cataloguingin PublicationData isavailable.
Copyright#2006byJohn W.Humphrey
Allrightsreserved. No portionofthis bookmay be
reproduced,by anyprocess or technique,without the
expresswritten consent ofthepublisher.
Libraryof CongressCatalog Card Number:2006007915
ISBN:0–313–32763–7
Firstpublished in2006
GreenwoodPress, 88PostRoadWest, Westport,CT 06881
AnimprintofGreenwood Publishing Group,Inc.
www.greenwood.com
Printedinthe UnitedStates ofAmerica
Thepaperused inthis bookcomplies withthe
Permanent PaperStandard issuedby theNational
Information StandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
C
ONTENTS
Series Foreword by Bella Vivante vii
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
Chronology of Events xix
Chapter 1. Historical and Technological Overview 1
Chapter 2. Food and Clothing 19
Chapter 3. Water 35
Chapter 4. Shelter and Security 53
Chapter 5. Transportation and Coinage 67
Chapter 6. Recordkeeping and Timekeeping 81
Chapter 7. Crafts 105
Chapter 8. Conclusions: Technology, Innovation,
and Society in Antiquity 117
Biographies 135
Primary Documents 145
Glossary 189
Annotated Bibliography 195
Index 213

S F
ERIES OREWORD
AsaprofessorandscholaroftheancientGreekworld,Iamoftenaskedby
students and scholars of other disciplines, why study antiquity? What
possiblerelevancecouldhumaneventsfromtwo,three,ormorethousand
years ago have to our lives today? This questioning of the continued
validityofourhistoricalpastmaybetheoffshootoftheforcesshapingthe
history of the American people. Proud of forging a new nation out of
immigrants wrenched willingly or not from their home soils, Americans
have experienced a liberating headiness of separation from traditional
historical demands on their social and cultural identity. The result has
been skepticism about the very validity of that historical past. Some of
that skepticism is healthy and serves constructive purposes of scholarly
inquiry. Questions of how, by whom, and in whose interest ‘‘history’’ is
writtenarevalidquestionspursuedbycontemporaryhistoriansstrivingto
uncover the multiple forces shaping any historical event and the multi-
layeredsocialconsequencesthatresult.Butthecurrentacademicfocuson
‘‘presentism’’—the concern with only recent events and a deliberate ig-
noring of premodern eras—betrays an extreme distortion of legitimate
intellectualinquiry.Thisstressonthepresentseemstohavedeepenedin
the early years of the twenty-first century. The cybertechnological ex-
plosions of the preceding decades seem to have propelled us into a new
cultural age requiring new rules that make the past appear all the more
obsolete.
SoagainIask,whystudyancientcultures?Inthepastyear,theUnited
States’ occupation of Iraq, after it ousted that nation’s heinous regime,
has kept Iraq in the forefront of the news. The land base of Iraq is an-
cient Mesopotamia, ‘‘the land between the rivers’’ of the Tigris and the
Euphrates,twoofthefourriversinthebiblicalGardenofEden(Genesis
2).Called‘‘thecradleofcivilization,’’thisareawitnessedtheearlydevel-
viii Series Foreword
opment of a centrally organized, hierarchical social system that utilized
thenewtechnologyofwritingtoadministeranincreasinglycomplexstate.
Is there a connection between the ancient events, literature, and art
comingoutofthislandandthecontemporaryevents?MichaelWood,in
his educational video Iraq: The Cradle of Civilization, produced shortly
after the 1991 Gulf War, makes this connection explicit—between the
people, their way of interacting with their environment, and even the
cosmological stories they create to explain and define their world.
Study of the ancient world, like study of contemporary cultures other
than one’s own, has more than academic or exotic value. First, study of
the past seeks meaning beyond solely acquiring factual knowledge. It
strives to understand the human and social dynamics that underlie any
historical event and what these underlying dynamics teach us about
ourselves as human beings in interaction with one another. Study of the
past also encourages deeper inquiry than what appears to some as the
‘‘quaint’’observationthatthisregionofcurrentandrecentconflictcould
haveservedas abiblicalideal oras acritical markerin thedevelopment
of world civilizations. In fact, these apparently quaint dimensions can
serve as the hook that piques our interest into examining the past and
discoveringwhatitmayhavetosaytoustoday.Notanendinitself,this
knowledge forms the bedrock for exploring deeper meanings.
Consider,forexample,thefollowingquestions:Whatdoesitmeanthat
three major world religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—devel-
oped out of the ancient Mesopotamian worldview? (In this view, the
world, and hence its gods, were seen as being in perpetual conflict with
one another and with the environment, and death was perceived as a
matterofdespairanddesolation.)WhatdoesitmeanthatWesternforms
ofthinkingderivedfromtheparticularintellectualrevolution ofarchaic
Greecethatdevelopedintowhatiscalled‘‘rationaldiscourse,’’ultimately
systematized by Aristotle in the fourth century B.C.E.? How does this
thinking, now fundamental to Western discourse, shape how we see the
world and ourselves, and how we interact with one another? And how
doesitaffectourability,orlackthereof,tocommunicateintelligiblywith
peoplewithdifferentlyframedculturalperceptions?What,ultimately,do
we gain from being aware of the origin and development of these funda-
mental features of our thinkingand beliefs?
In short, knowing the past is essential for knowing ourselves in the
present. Without an understanding of where we came from, and the
journeywetooktogetwherewearetoday,wecannotunderstandwhywe
think or act the way we do. Nor, without an understanding of historical
development, are we in a position to make the kinds of constructive
Series Foreword ix
changesnecessarytoadvanceasasociety.Awarenessofthepastgivesus
the resources necessary to make comparisons between our contemporary
worldandpasttimes.Itisfromthesecomparisonsthatwecanassessboth
theadvanceswehavemadeashumansocietiesandthoseaspectsthatcan
still benefit from change. Hence, knowledge of the past is crucial for
shaping our individual and social identities, providing us with the re-
sourcestomakeintelligent,aware,andinformeddecisionsforthefuture.
Allancientsocieties,whethersignificantfortheevolutionofWestern
ideasandvalues,ordevelopedlargelyseparatefromtheculturesthatmore
directly influenced Western civilization, such as China, have important
lessonstoteachus.Forfundamentallytheyalladdressquestionsthathave
faced every human individual and every human society that has ever
existed. Because ancient civilizations erected great monuments of them-
selves in stone, writings, and the visual arts—all enduring material evi-
dence—we can view how these ancient cultures dealt with many of the
same questions we face today. And we learn the consequences of the
actions taken by people in other societies and times that, ideally, should
help us as we seek solutions to contemporary issues. Thus it was that
President John F. Kennedy wrote of his reliance upon Thucydides’
treatmentofthedevastatingwarbetweentheancientGreekcity-statesof
Athens and Sparta (see the volume on the Peloponnesian War) in his
study of exemplary figures, Profiles in Courage.
This series seeks to fulfill this goal both collectively and in the in-
dividual volumes. The individual volumes examine key events, trends,
anddevelopmentsinworldhistoryinancienttimesthatarecentraltothe
secondary school and lower-level undergraduate history curriculum and
that form standard topics for student research. From a vast field of po-
tential subjects, these selected topics emerged after consultations with
scholars, educators, and librarians. Each book in the series can be de-
scribedasa‘‘libraryinabook.’’Eachonepresentsachronologicaltimeline
and an initial factual overview of its subject, three to five topical essays
that examine the subject from diverse perspectives and for its various
consequences, a concluding essay providing current perspectives on the
event, biographies of key players, a selection of primary documents, il-
lustrations,aglossary,andanindex.Theconceptoftheseriesistoprovide
ready-reference materials that include a quick, in-depth examination of
the topic and insightful guidelines for interpretive analysis, suitable for
studentresearchanddesignedtostimulatecriticalthinking.Theauthors
areallscholarsofthetopicintheirrespectivefields,selectedbothonthe
basis of their expertise and for their ability to bring their scholarly
knowledge to a wider audience in an engaging and clear way. In these