Machines, power and the ancient economy

or cultivable land by the development of agricultural landscapes through irrigation, drainage, and land reclamation schemes. In this sense technology can be considered to have had an important impact on the availability of the land input factor. Here, we concentrate on irrigation technologies.

In 1934 and 1935, Lewis Mumford and Marc Bloch published two very different pioneering works in the history of technology, Technics and Civilization and "Avènement et conquêtes du moulin à eau," the first an ambitious attempt to trace the development of technology in human civilizations over several thousand years, the second a historical overview of the development of milling technology from Greco-Roman times to the end of the Middle Ages. 1 What was to prove an extraordinarily influential thesis about the development of medieval technology appeared in both publications, namely, that the second half of the European Middle Ages witnessed a rapid increase not only in the number of mills powered by water and wind but also in the range of industrial processes to which waterpower and wind power were applied. These phenomena were, according to Mumford and Bloch, emblematic of a medieval revolution in the use of power technology that laid the foundations for what happened in the Industrial Revolution Dr. Lucas works as a researcher and policy analyst at the Cabinet Office for the Government of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. His academic research interests include ancient and medieval science and technology, the historical sociology of institutions, and the genealogy of the mechanical philosophy. His book, Wind, Water, Work: Ancient and Medieval Milling Technology, will be published by Brill Academic Publishers later this year. The author is grateful to a number of scholars for their assistance with this article, including John Schuster, Richard Holt, John Langdon, Thomas Glick, Colin Rynne, Ö rjan Wikander, and the Technology and Culture referees.

Wilson, A. I. “The economic impact of technological advances in the Roman construction industry”, in E. Lo Cascio (ed.) Innovazione tecnica e progresso economico nel mondo romano. (Pragmateiai). Bari, Edipuglia 2006: 225-36., 2006

Water History, 2012

In this article, I examine the changes in water technology that occurred in the Near East during the Roman and late Roman periods (63 BC-AD 636). I argue, in particular, that the impact of Roman occupation in the Near East was not one of simple imposition of technology on the inhabitants of the Near East. This argument is defended by drawing on the analysis of the modern uptake of technologies in science and technology studies (STS) and by examining a selection of different technologies in the Roman Near East, including dams, pipelines, fountains, bathhouses and latrines. Through this exploration I demonstrate that several social, cultural and pragmatic factors can be seen to be at play and conclude that the most successful technological introductions were those that were socially, culturally and practically 'fluid'.

Journal of Ancienct Civilizations, 2017

Hardback Edition: ISBN 978-1-78297-651-6

Networks and Neighbours, 2021

The different perspectives brought by disciplines such as economics, sociology, and history have emphasized different aspects and characteristics as essential components of what makes "capitalism." This variety of definitions has, in turn, raised the question of whether "capitalism" can be identified in past historical periods, including classical antiquity. This essay will be largely informed by the archaeological evidence from the Roman world and will explore two key components of capitalism: accumulation of capital and production. The aim of the paper is to discuss the motivations behind the desire to accumulate wealth in the Roman early imperial period as revealed by archaeological examples. By focusing on casestudies, the paper will investigate the mechanisms behind the accumulation of capital in connection to the development of viticulture in Gaul and in Hispania Tarraconensis in the early imperial period; the growth in investment related to large-scale fishing and processing of fish products; and the intensification and growth of horticulture and arboriculture attested for the early first century AD. The key questions the essay will investigate concern who was able to accumulate capital in the Roman world and if, and to what degree, social mobility impacted on capital accumulation; and whether capital accumulation allowed for investment in innovation

Journal of Archaeological Research, 2000

Ongoing debates over the significance of specialized production in ancient political economies frequently hinge on questions of whether elites or commoners controlled craft manufactures and whether the material or ideological import of these production processes was more significant in deciding power contests. Though long recognized, such queries were traditionally answered in relatively straightforward economic terms. Recently, these time-honored approaches have been questioned. An ever increasing number of authors are promoting varied takes on the causal linkages between political forms and processes, on the one hand, and patterns of production, distribution, and use of craft goods, on the other. The literature generated by these discussions is extensive, vibrant, and often confusing. Rather than trying to synthesize all reports and essays dealing with specialized manufacture, this paper highlights general interpretive trends that underlie and structure current debates. The concluding section offers suggestions for how studies of relations among crafts, power, and social heterogeneity might be pursued profitably in the future.

P. Erdkamp, K. Verboven and A. Zuiderhoek (eds.), Capital, Investment and Innovation in the Roman World, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020