The wealth of excavation of ancient buildings in the past 50 years and the resulting flood of publications has created a demand for a survey of building practice in antiquity. This two-volume work deals with the techniques of setting together the fabric of ancient buildings: the manual and mechanical operations involved; the materials, tools and equipment used. "Ancient" here means from very first beginnings (origins) to the end of Late Antiquity (i.e. about 600 A.D.); as manifested geographically in the Old World of Europe and the Middle East (not sub-Saharan Africa, Further Asia, the Far East or New World). Building (the product and the process) is limited to architectural building and looks at the technology of civil engineering only where it introduces novelties. Technology here means the system of techniques used in the process of building construction rather than the science or theory of building. The 10 chapters of this first volume are intended to give a general perspective of animal building in the light of evolutionary biology, then of building in the Palaeolithic, Neolithic, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Levanto-Aegean, Achaemenid, Greek, Roman, Late Antique -Early Christian / Byzantine / Sassanian contexts (with a weighting towards the lesser known prehistoric beginnings and late antique end). The second volume will focus on the technical details: materials of construction, structural systems, principles of construction and forms of construction.

Building construction is the subject of this third part of the Ancient Building Technology set dealing with the history of building and building materials). Beginning with the formulation of a project it goes on to discuss preliminary site surveying and setting out, followed by building site development and its attendant installations, and then examines the disposition of the various building materials in building construction from pre-history to the end of antiquity.

Building construction is the subject of this third part of the Ancient Building Technology set (TCH 4 and TCH 7 dealing with the history of building and building materials). Beginning with the formulation of a project (drawings, specifications and estimates of quantities) it goes on to discuss preliminary site surveying and setting out, followed by building site development and its attendant installations, and then examines the disposition of the various building materials (wood, stone, brick, and concrete) in building construction from pre-history to the end of antiquity. The work is intended as a ready reference compendium of information which otherwise would require extended research to come by. It should be of service to all students of antiquity, and a particular convenience to have on hand during archaeological field work. This volume is published in two parts, the first containing the discussion and the second more than 400 illustrations, completing the discussion.

This résumé study deals with building material, which together with construction and structures, forms one of the three aspects of building, or equally one of the three factors which constitute the nature of a building.

This two-volume work describes the pre-industrial history of mechanical engineering and covers power generation, transport, manufacturing, and weapons technology. Important items are discussed in each section and performance data are presented in easily understood graphical format using over 800 illustrations. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004136090).

Ancient Building Technology is the first modern English-language survey of building technology in a period from prehistory to the end of the Classical World in the region of Europe, the Middle East and the Mediterranean basin. After an historical survey of construction from first shelters to late antique building, the volume considers materials of construction, structural systems (framed, load-bearing etc.), processes of construction (project drawings, site preparations, equipment and works organisation), forms of constructions (foundations, walls, floors etc.) and concludes with a discussion of the evolution and diffusion of building technology and of the role of social and technical factors, culture and civilisation in its development.

This résumé study deals with building material, which together with construction and structures, forms one of the three aspects of building, or equally one of the three factors which constitute the nature of a building. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004140073).

Why did the Greeks excel in geometry, but lag begin the Mesopotamians in arithmetic? How were the great pyramids of Egypt and the Han tombs in China constructed? What did the complex system of canals and dykes in the Tigris and Euphrates river valley have to do with the deforestation of Lebanon's famed cedar forests? This work presents a cross-cultural comparison of the ways in which the ancients learned about and preserved their knowledge of the natural world, and the ways in which they developed technologies that enabled them to adapt to and shape their surroundings. Covering the major ancient civilizations - those of Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, Greece, the Indus Valley, and Meso-America - Olson explores how language and numbering systems influenced the social structure, how seemingly beneficial construction projects affected a civilization's rise or decline, how religion and magic shaped both medicine and agriculture, and how trade and the resulting cultural interactions transformed the making of both everyday household items and items intended as art. Along the way, Olson delves into how scientific knowledge and its technological applications changed the daily lives of the ancients.