Almost every aspect of daily life in ancient Greek and Roman culture was connected in some way to engineering and technology. The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World, edited by John Peter Oleson, offers an authoritative survey of current thinking and research on these topics, but it is not for the fainthearted reader.1 Billed as a major new initiative in academic publishing on the part of Oxford University Press, the handbook is a tightly orchestrated group project containing essays that were commissioned from leading international scholars in each discipline. The finished product represents a new milestone for Oxford and for the field. Each of the eight parts to the book is a stand-alone tour de force that deserves enormous praise for its organization, its comprehensiveness, and its promise for impacting future studies.

Part 1 covers ancient written sources (Serafina Cuomo, chap. 1), ancient artistic representations of technical processes (Roger B. Ulrich, chap. 2), and historiography combined with theoretical approaches (Kevin Greene, chap. 3). Cuomo surveys ancient sources from classical Athens, the Hellenistic kingdoms, the Roman Empire, and late antiquity side by side. She examines Vitruvius’ Architecture and Frontinus’ Aqueducts for the way each author celebrates the achievements made possible by technical knowledge, and at the same time, she explores the proud epitaphs of two everyday practitioners of technology, Benignus (in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum [CIL] 12.722, from a sarcophagus found in Arles, third century CE), and Harpalus (in Michael Donderer, Die Architekten der späten römischen Republik und der Kaiserzeit: Epigraphische Zeugnisse [1996], A8, written in Greek on a tablet from Egypt, probably also third century CE). The contrast between the full-fledged treatises and those humble inscriptions highlights how oral tradition and apprenticeship must also have preserved technical knowledge, while writing made it more visible and respectable and created a memorial for the author.

In chapter 2, Ulrich collects and analyzes ancient images of technological processes—bas-reliefs from Egyptian tombs, Greek painted pottery, and Roman-period relief sculpture and painting—that offer vital evidence for the reconstruction of methods, equipment, scale of operation, labor force, and sequencing of tasks. He not only reproduces critical examples of these images, but also considers their artistic intent, the range and category of the depictions, and the technologies represented in mythological settings, such as Hephaestus at his forge or Minerva and Arachne at their looms (p. 54). While images of industrial activities were made mostly by private individuals for private commemoration, they give us both expected and surprising information about the workforce—on the one hand, the dominance of women in Greek spinning and weaving, and on the other, the presence of a Greek woman in a mining operation; on the one hand, Roman women involved in the distribution of food and drink on the retail level, and on the other, women as portrait-painters or laborers (p. 55). We also learn about clothing and personal accessories of workers. It seems Romans, however humble, were always garbed (p. 56).

Chapter 3 offers a stunning overview of the literature and attitudes toward ancient technology from the scholarship of the nineteenth century to today. Greene asks “Where are we now?” (in our thinking about ancient technology) and “How did we get here?” He considers the methodologies of studying ancient economies as such methodologies are influenced by revolutions, determinism, and theories about relevance, continuity, ethnography, material culture, evolution, and alternative technology. He reminds us that the very act of compiling a handbook of Greek and Roman technology involves theoretical choices both in its subject matter and its period of study. He reviews the meaning behind explicit terminology, such as “discovery,” “invention,” and “innovation,” in order to understand the theories behind many conclusions. Greene does not disappoint with his succinct summaries of the work of Michel Foucault, Mark Bradley, Pierre Lemonnier, and others who have been a part of the theoretical discourse on technology.

Part 2 surveys the primary, extractive technologies of antiquity: mining and metallurgy (Paul T. Craddock, chap. 4); quarrying and stoneworking (J. Clayton Fant, chap. 5); sources of energy and exploitation of power (Örjan Wikander, chap. 6); Greek and Roman agriculture (Evi Margaritis and Martin K. Jones, chap. 7); and animal husbandry, hunting, fishing and fish production (Geoffrey Kron, chap. 8). We are treated both to the richness of information on each of these topics and to the depth of research behind each. Fant, for example, gives us a provisional list of stone sources owned and exploited by the ratio marmorum, or marble bureau, an institution that likely developed in the age of Augustus (pp. 127–28). Kron, in several illuminating tables (8.1–5), provides details (ancient sources, modern scholarship, and comparative evidence) on Greco-Roman domestic animal species, hunting dog breeds, game and gamebird species, and fish-catching methods.

The five chapters of part 3 involve engineering and the complex machines of the Greeks and Romans. Frederick A. Cooper (chap. 9) deals with Greek engineering and construction and focuses almost exclusively on temple architecture. He convincingly shows us that at most Greek temple sites, stone architectural components were designed to maximize the geotechnical properties of the stones, and that the drainage systems laid successfully moved water away from stone foundations. He also reviews the independent units of temples (peristyle and cella, p. 235), surface materials (plaster, stucco, flooring, tiles, pp. 236ff.), and other building materials, including a variety of metals and wood in temple construction. We learn that Greek architect-engineers were not impractical and idealistic artists, as they have been viewed in the past, but technicians very knowledgeable about the demands and opportunities of the available building materials and very well prepared to confront the challenges of constructing elaborate designs in a seismic environment.

Lynne Lancaster (chap. 10) reminds us that the building technologies of the Romans, both in Rome and in the provinces, often advanced hand in hand with the desire for public amenities, namely theaters, amphitheaters, and bath buildings. She concludes that both theaters and baths provided a place to display the latest materials and architectural forms and were at the forefront of building technologies in every part of the Roman world.

The main message of Andrew I. Wilson’s arguments (chap. 11) is that the control and management of water have been vital to all societies since the very beginnings of agriculture and urbanization. He describes the evidence for wells, cisterns, and aqueducts both before and during the Greek and Roman periods. Furthermore, he discusses the relationship between long-distance water supply and fountains, nymphaea, baths, and irrigation systems in Roman cities and considers whether aqueducts were necessary or merely a luxury in the Roman period. While admitting that much more work needs to be done on the chronology of the spread of aqueducts and on the chronology of the spread and development of cities in the western provinces, Wilson concludes that aqueducts definitely enabled cities to grow larger and support more and more people at the same time that they supported many luxurious amenities.

Because tunnels are less conspicuous than bridges, Klaus Grewe (chap. 12) notes that they have remained somewhat in the background within the history of technology. Grewe not only lists in detail all of the important tunnels in the classical world (table 12.1), but also discusses early tunnels and the qanat system, canals, and special achievements in ancient tunnel construction. The tunnel of Eupalinus in Samos and that of Nonius Datus at Saldae—modern Bejaïa, Algeria—are featured (pp. 324ff.). Grewe also analyzes the remarkable inscription of Nonius Datus (in the CIL 8.2728, p. 331) that reveals the drama and personal emotion encountered during the construction of the tunnel—including an attack by bandits—and information about its counterexcavation at the other side of the obstructing hillside.

The concluding chapter of part 3 (chap. 13, also by Andrew I. Wilson) surveys machines in Greek and Roman technology, including simple machines for mechanical power, cranes and traction, surgical traction machines—for resetting bones, for example—engines of war, and water-lifting devices. In addition to water mills, we learn of other applications of waterpower, such as for dough-mixing, for sawmills, for pounding grain with pestles, and for recumbent triphammers or vertical ore stamps used for crushing ore in mining regions (p. 357). In the chapter’s final section, on machines for purposes of entertainment, Wilson considers the water organ (hydraulis, p. 360) and mechanical devices used in public entertainments in Greek and Roman theaters and in Roman amphitheaters and circuses. He rightfully notes that the role of machines in the social and economic development of antiquity has perhaps been excessively downplayed in the past. The idea that slavery made machines unnecessary or that animism discouraged the exploitation of waterpower can now be roundly rejected.

The secondary processes and manufacturing technologies of the Greeks and Romans take up the eight chapters of part 4 and provide many contributions to new scholarship and analyses of their topics: food processing (Robert I. Curtis, chap. 14); large-scale manufacturing, standardization, and trade (Andrew I. Wilson, chap. 15); metalworking and tools (Carol Mattusch, chap. 16); woodworking (Roger B. Ulrich, chap. 17); textile production (John P. Wild, chap. 18); tanning and leather manufacture (Carol van Driel-Murray, chap. 19); ceramic production (Mark Jackson and Kevin Greene, chap. 20); and glass production (E. Marianne Stern, chap. 21).

Part 5, technologies of movement and transport, has four chapters. Lorenzo Quilici (chap. 22) studies Roman roads and bridges along with their predecessors, while Georges Raepsaet (chap. 23) collects as much information as possible on land transport—involving horseback riding, harnessing systems, and land vehicles such as carts, wagons, and the like. He demonstrates the epistemological prejudice concerning these topics (cf. J. G. Landels, Engineering in the Ancient World [2000], p. 170, where Landels explicitly states that land transport was “unimportant” by comparison with transport on the sea). Raepsaet’s close examination of the archaeological evidence repositions land transport soundly among the major transportation technologies of Greece and Rome. Seán McGrail (chap. 24) reviews the technologies of ships and navigation from ancient Egypt to about 500 CE. McGrail’s use of The Odyssey as a source for plank-fastening techniques in shipbuilding is perhaps a tad overstated, since the Homeric epics are not handbooks on these matters. David J. Blackman (chap. 25) explores the REVIEWS construction of harbors in the classical world, including moles, quays, naval harbors, ancient ship sheds, hauling-ways, lighthouses, shipbuilding yards, silting and dredging, and issues of sea level change. While scholars have long puzzled about the relationship between harbors and the cities they served, new evidence, particularly at Rome and Pisa (p. 664), suggests that certain river systems have changed course and various canals and lagoons that once existed are now silted up.

Philip de Souza (chap. 26) on Greek warfare and fortification and Gwyn Davies (chap. 27) on Roman warfare and fortification make up part 6 (the so-called technologies of death). Chapter 26 involves a wide spectrum of Greek war-making technologies: archaeological evidence for hoplite warfare, the new tactical formations of the Macedonian war machine under Philip II (359–336 BCE), such as the densely packed phalanx, and Greek naval warfare. As in chapter 24, I must lodge a modest complaint about de Souza’s use of Homeric epic, this time as a reflection of “contemporary martial culture” (p. 673), as it ignores some of the latest scholarship on Homer, especially the work of Gregory Nagy. Davies (chap. 27) asserts that Rome’s success at continuous expansion was inextricably linked with the maintenance of military supremacy. He therefore outlines the army in the field (organization, weapons, and tactics) with special emphasis on the spear and sword, missiles, artillery, shields, helmets, and body armor. In each case he demonstrates how Roman tactics, including prowess at constructing siegeworks—the Roman assault ramp at Masada, 73 CE (p. 705) is featured—defensible fortifications, and superior military equipment gave the Roman army a technical edge on the battlefield that persistently set it apart from most other contemporary armies. The history of military machines considered by Wilson in chapter 13 seems to belong more sensibly here, in part 6.

In many ways, part 7, technologies of the mind, and the final part 8, ancient technologies in the modern world, offer the most innovative and refreshing observations in this mammoth volume. Part 7 includes an essay on information technologies such as writing, book production, and the role of literacy by Willy Clarysse and Katelijn Vandorpe (chap. 28); one by Robert Hannah on timekeeping (chap. 29); one by Charlotte Wikander on the technologies of calculation such as weights and measures, one by Andrew Meadows on coinage, and one by Karin Tybjerg on practical mathematics (three separate parts of chap. 30); one on gadgets and scientific instruments by Örjan Wikander (chap. 31); and one by Kevin Greene on inventors, invention, and attitudes toward innovation (chap. 32). Michael B. Schiffer rounds out the volume with chapter 33, on the historical evidence for expanding ethnoarchaeology and model-building in the study of technological change.

The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World aims to deploy critical examinations both of the progress and direction of the many debates in the field of ancient technology and engineering, and the end result provides scholars, graduate students, and a serious readership of nonspecialists a set of compelling new perspectives on a wide range of subfields within the study of these topics. I note very few omissions in this extraordinary book (developments in plumbing and latrine architecture come to mind, but not much has been published on these topics to date), so there is very little to complain about overall. Oleson’s editing is excellent, so there is no jarring sensation as we read from chapter to chapter by so many different authors from so many different countries. The bibliographies at the end of each chapter are invaluable. This handbook has indeed set a new standard, and it will leave a large and definitive intellectual footprint on a new age of scholarship.

1. The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World, ed. John Peter Oleson (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008, xviii+865, $150).

Dr. Koloski-Ostrow is associate professor and chair of classical studies at Brandeis University. She is the author of The Sarno Bath Complex (1990) and editor of Water Use and Hydraulics in the Roman City (2001). Currently she is working on a book titled The Archaeology of Sanitation in Roman Italy: Water, Sewers, and Toilets that is being published by the University of North Carolina Press, and another entitled Pompeii and Herculaneum: Daily Life in the Shadow of Vesuvius, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.

©2008 by the Society for the History of Technology.

Filed under: Vol. 49 No. 4 (October 2008)