In a message dated 10/25/2008 2:55:12 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, BK Marcus writes:
Professor Bertman,
I read your 2005 article “A New Course in Ancient Engineering” and am wondering if you’ve developed the course more in the past few years or if you have any more materials available online. I’m doing some early research into homeschooling my son and would like to focus on the very hands-on aspects of engineering and architecture as we study the ancient and medieval periods.
I’ve purchased the History Channel’s DVD series, “Engineering an Empire” and have just received a copy of L. Sprague de Camp’s Ancient Engineers, which I ordered at your suggestion. But I’d be happy to discover that I don’t need to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. I know your course is for college students, but I’m hoping I can adapt its structure and focus for a smart young kid.
Any further pointers you can give me would be very much appreciated.
Thank you.
BK Marcus
From: Prof Bertman
Date: October 26, 2008 11:52:15 AM EDT
To: BK Marcus
Subject: Re: Ancient Engineering
Dear BK (?),
Thanks for writing.
If you can provide me with your postal mailing address, I’d be happy to send you a copy of the syllabus of my course along with questions I’ve used for the midterm and final exams — not that I’d want you to use them for examination purposes but rather because they may suggest lines of inquiry and food for further thought.
The History Channel has produced some marvelous programs in their “Ancient Discoveries” series, but regretably they’re all not on video. Two in particular are especially fascinating: a show on the Antikythera Mechanism (an ancient computer) and another on the inventions of Heron of Alexandria. Since they recycle so many of their shows, you may catch them as repeats.
Actually, I think you unknowingly hit upon a great idea when you spoke about “reinventing the wheel.” The part of the course my students enjoyed the most was building models designed to reproduce ancient devices. For Egypt and Mesopotamia, constructing a shaduf to raise water, or showing how a heavy sarcophagus could be lowered into a tomb chamber by slowly letting out the sand it rested on; for Greece, constructing an example of Archimedes’ Screw to raise kernels of grain; for Rome, building a working model of a catapult, or a table-top aqueduct, or constructing the multi-layered pavement of an old Roman “highway.”
Googling such terms as shaduf, pyramid, Archimedes’ screw, catapult, aqueduct, and Appian Way should yield good results, especially the site on catapults. There’s also an impressive site devoted exclusively to the life, career, and inventions of Archimedes, featuring a number of pictures in motion (www.mcs.drexel.edu/~crores/Archimedes).
I think for a young student, reading about a period in engineering history in deCamp’s book and then building a working model of a device invented then would be exciting and rewarding experience, especially since the model could then be kept on a bedroom shelf in an “Ancient Engineering Hall of Fame”! Researching the lives of famous ancient engineers (at least of those whose names we know!) might also be fun (when did they live? what was going on then in history? what things helped to shape their lives?).
Incidentally, two ancient books survive from the hand of ancient Roman engineers: Vitruvius’ On Architecture and Frontinus’ Aqueducts of Rome and are available in English translation. Reading relevant chapters could give a student a feel for how ancient engineers and architects thought.
Conversations I had with a producer for National Geographic Television some time ago suggests they may have a series in the works on Greek science to be aired in late 2009. If you have cable and get the National Geographic channel, that’ll be a series to watch (assuming it actually goes into production). The series was to be produced by Kate Culpepper (KCulpepp@ngs.org), who might be able to give you more details. (Should you learn more about whether and when the series would be aired, please let me know.)
In looking for Ms. Culpepper’s address, I came across a book that I’m sure would be of interest to you: Ancient Inventions by Peter James and Nick Thorpe (NY: Ballantine, 1994). It has some great illustrations.
Anyway, thanks for writing, and keep me posted on your progress and successes. Again, if you give me your address, I’d be happy to forward the materials I mentioned.
With best wishes,
Stephen Bertman