Von
"When requested to prepare a second edition of my Bitumen and
Petroleum in Antiquity, which had long been out of print, it
seemed to the author that the time had come to publish certain
essays on ancient technology which he had written. We can not
hope to improve on H. Blümner's Technologie und Terminologie der
Gewerbe und Künste bei Griechen und Römern, which excellent
book is now over fifty years old and unfortunately deals with the
classical period only. Since new evidence on classical technology
and, above all, abundant evidence on preclassical technology has
become available, but this evidence is spread over many periodicals
and publications. A series of small booklets, each containing a
number of essays on ancient technology, covering both the pre-
classical and classical period and demonstrating the continuity and
the divergence, seemed justified. This book is the first of this series
to describe certain phases of ancient technology, to point out the
gaps in our knowledge and to try and use modern technology,
philological and archaeological evidence to sketch ancient technology
in such a way that it may be of some use to inform historians,
archaeologists and philologists on the skill and the material world
of the ancients. By co-operation many of the problems still unsolved
could be unknotted and the author will be grateful for comments and
additions to the material here presented. May these booklets promote
discussion and research."
Sprache
Land