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