Download or read book Studies in ancient technology 9 1964 written by Robert James Forbes and published by Brill Archive. This book was released on 1964 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Studies in Ancient Greek Topography written by William Kendrick Pritchett and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1965-01-01 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Energy and Civilization written by Vaclav Smil and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society throughout history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. "I wait for new Smil books the way some people wait for the next 'Star Wars' movie. In his latest book, Energy and Civilization: A History, he goes deep and broad to explain how innovations in humans' ability to turn energy into heat, light, and motion have been a driving force behind our cultural and economic progress over the past 10,000 years. —Bill Gates, Gates Notes, Best Books of the Year Energy is the only universal currency; it is necessary for getting anything done. The conversion of energy on Earth ranges from terra-forming forces of plate tectonics to cumulative erosive effects of raindrops. Life on Earth depends on the photosynthetic conversion of solar energy into plant biomass. Humans have come to rely on many more energy flows—ranging from fossil fuels to photovoltaic generation of electricity—for their civilized existence. In this monumental history, Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. Humans are the only species that can systematically harness energies outside their bodies, using the power of their intellect and an enormous variety of artifacts—from the simplest tools to internal combustion engines and nuclear reactors. The epochal transition to fossil fuels affected everything: agriculture, industry, transportation, weapons, communication, economics, urbanization, quality of life, politics, and the environment. Smil describes humanity's energy eras in panoramic and interdisciplinary fashion, offering readers a magisterial overview. This book is an extensively updated and expanded version of Smil's Energy in World History (1994). Smil has incorporated an enormous amount of new material, reflecting the dramatic developments in energy studies over the last two decades and his own research over that time.
Download or read book An Archaeological Perspective on the History of Technology written by A. Mark Pollard and published by . This book was released on 2023-02-22 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume represents an introduction to a new world-wide attempt to review the history of technology, which is one of few since the pioneering publications of the 1960s. It takes an explicit archaeological focus to the study of the history of technology and adopts a more explicit socially-embedded view of technology than has commonly been the case in mainstream histories of technology. In doing so, it attempts to introduce a more radical element to explanations of technological change, involving magic, alchemy, animism - in other words, attempting to consider technological change in terms of the 'world view' of those involved in such change rather than from an exclusively western scientific perspective.
Download or read book Leviticus and Numbers written by Roy Gane and published by Zondervan Academic. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many today find the Old Testament a closed book. The cultural issues seem insurmountable and we are easily baffled by that which seems obscure. Furthermore, without knowledge of the ancient culture we can easily impose our own culture on the text, potentially distorting it. This series invites you to enter the Old Testament with a company of guides, experts that will give new insights into these cherished writings. Features include • Over 2000 photographs, drawings, maps, diagrams and charts provide a visual feast that breathes fresh life into the text. • Passage-by-passage commentary presents archaeological findings, historical explanations, geographic insights, notes on manners and customs, and more. • Analysis into the literature of the ancient Near East will open your eyes to new depths of understanding both familiar and unfamiliar passages. • Written by an international team of 30 specialists, all top scholars in background studies.
Download or read book Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs written by John Hilber and published by Zondervan Academic. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 944 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many today find the Old Testament a closed book. The cultural issues seem insurmountable and we are easily baffled by that which seems obscure. Furthermore, without knowledge of the ancient culture we can easily impose our own culture on the text, potentially distorting it. This series invites you to enter the Old Testament with a company of guides, experts that will give new insights into these cherished writings. Features include • Over 2000 photographs, drawings, maps, diagrams and charts provide a visual feast that breathes fresh life into the text. • Passage-by-passage commentary presents archaeological findings, historical explanations, geographic insights, notes on manners and customs, and more. • Analysis into the literature of the ancient Near East will open your eyes to new depths of understanding both familiar and unfamiliar passages. • Written by an international team of 30 specialists, all top scholars in background studies.
Download or read book Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia In their Local Setting written by Colin J. Hemer and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 1987-03-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a new foreword by David E. Aune, this modern classic by Colin J. Hemer explores the seven letters in the book of Revelation against the historical background of the churches to which they were addressed. Based on literary, epigraphical, and archaeological sources and informed by Hemer's firsthand knowledge of the biblical sites, this superb study presents in the clearest way possible a picture of the New Testament world in the later part of the first century and its significance for broader questions of church history.
Download or read book The Romans written by Karl Christ and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1984 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roman civilization is one of the bases of the modern world. The extraordinary achievements of Rome--political, military, cultural--and its dramatic, thousand-year history, during which it grew to dominate the whole world of classical antiquity before being overwhelmed in its turn, have been continuously studied and variously interpreted ever since. Rome has been commended for its administration, praised for its system of justice, admired for its arts and technology, extolled for its "virtues," such as love of freedom, independence, discipline, courage, and austerity. It has also been condemned for its aggression, its exploitation of slaves, its excesses, and the decadence that led to its decline. But such was Rome's impact, and so remarkable was the empire it built, that its influence has never ceased to be felt. Whether as a model of political power, of moral behavior, or of social control, Rome with its splendors and triumphs, its failings and disasters, is an inexhaustible quarry for the lessons that its history offers and the legacies that it has bequeathed. Karl Christ conveys the essence of this vital Roman tradition with a coherence and compact precision that few scholars, if any, have been able to achieve. Following the main chronological developments of Roman history, he combines the necessary minimum of political and military narrative with lucid social and economic analysis, separate chapters of Roman ways of life and law, and wide-ranging coverage of literature, art, science, technology, and religion. With maps and photographs as well as a specially prepared bibliography for further reading, The Romans is the most up-to-date, authoritative and comprehensive single-volume introduction to the history and civilization of Ancient Rome.
Download or read book Renewable Energy written by Bent Sorensen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-14 with total page 2042 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This four-volume set, edited by a leading expert in the field, brings together in one collection a series of papers that have been fundamental to the development of renewable energy as a defined discipline. Some of the papers were first published many years ago, but they remain classics in their fields and retain their relevance to the understanding of current issues. The papers have been selected with the assistance of an eminent international editorial board. The set includes a general introduction and each volume is introduced by a new overview essay, placing the selected papers in context. The range of subject matter is considerable, including coverage of all the main renewable technologies, the fundamental principles by which they function, and the issues around their deployment such as planning, integration and socio-economic assessment. Overall, the set provides students, teachers and researchers, confronted with thousands of journal articles, book chapters and grey literature stretching back decades, with a ready-made selection of and commentary on the most important key writings in renewable energy. It will be an essential reference for libraries concerned with energy, technology and the environment.
Download or read book The IVP Bible Background Commentary Old Testament written by John H. Walton and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2012-11-15 with total page 839 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique commentary provides historical, social and cultural background for each passage of the Old Testament. From Genesis through Malachi, this single volume gathers and condenses an abundance of specialized knowledge, and includes a glossary, maps and charts, and expanded explanations of significant background issues.
Download or read book Energy In World History written by Vaclav Smil and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-04-15 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every human activity entails the conversion of energy. Changes in the fundamental sources of energy, and in the use of energy sources, are a basic dimension of the evolution of society. Our appreciation of the significance of these processes is essential to a fuller understanding of world history. Vaclav Smil offers a comprehensive look at the role
Download or read book Ancient Technology written by John W. Humphrey and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2006-09-30 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since ancient times, technological advances have increased man's chances for survival. From the practicality of a Roman aqueduct to the art of the written word, man has always adapted his environment to meet his needs, and to provide himself with sustenance, comfort, comfort, leisure, a higher quality of living, and a thriving culture. This concise reference source takes a closer look at six technological events that significantly impacted the evolution of civilization, from the Palaeolithic age to the height of the Roman Empire. As he touches on the common elements of ancient technology—energy, machines, mining, metallurgy, ceramics, agriculture, engineering, transportation, and communication—Humphrey asks questions central to understanding the impact of ancient tools on the modern world: What prompts change? What cultural traditions inhibit change? What effect do these changes have on their societies and civilization? Humphrey explores technologies as both physical tools and as extensions of the human body, beginning with the invention of the Greek alphabet and including such accomplishments as early Neolithic plant cultivation, the invention of coinage, the building of the Parthenon, and Rome's urban water system. Detailed line drawings of tools and machines make ancient mechanics more easily accessible. Primary documents, glossary, biographies, and a timeline dating from the Palaeolithic age to the Roman Empire round out the work, making this an ideal reference source for understanding the tools of the ancient world.
Download or read book A Tale of Three Thirsty Cities written by Jaime-Chaim Shulman and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2017-11-01 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In A Tale of Three Thirsty Cities: The Innovative Water Supply Systems of Toledo, London and Paris in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century, Chaim Shulman presents an analysis of three projects of urban water supply systems carried out between 1560s–1610s. The technical and economic differences between these projects resulted from external conditions not directly related to the water supply problem. Although the same basic technology was apparently available at the time in all cases, the geographical, engineering, entrepreneurial and cultural nature of each region differed. The inhabitants’ wellbeing improvement achieved varied accordingly. Much broader insights are drawn on the policies of the three monarchies regarding the initiative of and support for grand scale public works in general.
Download or read book Technology and Science in Ancient Civilizations written by Richard G. Olson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-12-21 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Sparta written by Stephen Hodkinson and published by Classical Press of Wales. This book was released on 2002-12-31 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study of the Spartans is now pursued more widely and intensively than ever. Indeed, no longer is Sparta the 'second city' of ancient Greece. This volume, the fourth in the established series on which Powell and Hodkinson have collaborated, breaks fresh ground, not least in the range of its contributors. The authors of the fourteen new papers represent nine different countries and demonstrate many of the fertile modern approaches to the history, the archaeology - and the still-influential image - of the city on the Eurotas.
Download or read book The Shape of the Great Pyramid written by Roger Herz-Fischler and published by Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. This book was released on 2009-10-21 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who has not seen a picture of the Great Pyramid of Egypt, massive in size but deceptively simple in shape, and not wondered how that shape was determined? Starting in the late eighteenth century, eleven main theories were proposed to explain the shape of the Great Pyramid. Even though some of these theories are well known, there has never been a detailed examination of their origins and dissemination. Twenty years of research using original and difficult-to-obtain source material has allowed Roger Herz-Fischler to piece together the intriguing story of these theories. Archaeological evidence and ancient Egyptian mathematical texts are discussed in order to place the theories in their proper historical context. The theories themselves are examined, not as abstract mathematical discourses, but as writings by individual authors, both well known and obscure, who were influenced by the intellectual and social climate of their time. Among results discussed are the close links of some of the pyramid theories with other theories, such as the theory of evolution, as well as the relationship between the pyramid theories and the struggle against the introduction of the metric system. Of special note is the chapter examining how some theories spread whereas others were rejected. This book has been written to be accessible to a wide audience, yet four appendixes, detailed endnotes and an exhaustive bibliography provide specialists with the references expected in a scholarly work.
Download or read book The Tenants in the Vineyard written by John S. Kloppenborg and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2006 with total page 706 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John S. Kloppenborg gives a detailed analysis of one of the most difficult of Jesus' parables, the parable of the Tenants (Mark 12:1-12; Gospel of Thomas 65). He examines the ways in which Christians have typically read and mis-read the parable, and places the parable firmly in the context of the practices of ancient viticulture. The author models a new approach to the interpretation of the parables of Jesus. First, he critically engages the history of interpretation of the text, inquiring into the ideological interests that the parable has engaged during the history of its use in Christian churches and in political discourse. Second, he reconstructs the social world in which the parable was first told, in particular the economic, social, and legal aspects of ancient viticulture. He demonstrates that the parable of the Tenants has mostly been interpreted from the standpoint of those who wield social and political power, a strange irony considering the social status of the Jesus of history and the literary uses of the parable. All of the features common to the parable as it is told by Mark and the Gospel of Thomas make it a perfectly realistic story. It is only Mark's editing of the story that takes it beyond the realistic idiom characteristic of Jesus' other parables. The book concludes with a dossier of 58 papyrus documents relating to various aspects of viticulture and agrarian conflict. It was awarded the 2007 Francis W. Beare Book Award by the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies.
