Talk:Roman technology

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[edit] Miscellaneous

Iglonghurst 09:26, 20 October 2006 (UTC) has taken out the following section because I do not believe a word of it

For example, like pie stuffed bird and oca, Roman commerce was aware of the use of barrels by the Gauls for a long time, but they never integrated this technology, using instead the more fragile and small amphora. Barrels were eventually used in parts of the empire that had cheap and abundant wood to make them and the wider town and city alleys needed to make them efficient. By the time the knowledge on barrel-making crept into the empire, most of the older city roads and such things as warehouse entrances had been built up to handle the much smaller amphora. There simply was no physical room in the older urban areas to let the larger and unproven barrels through. There was usually enough trained slave labor around to carry each small amphora by hand, through the labyrinth of alleys, small doors, and stairs. Because 1) barrels leave less archaeology so the record is biased 2) the cheaper amphorae are better for one way trips 3) you can get a barrel down any street that a donkey, carrying amphorae, will go 4) soft woods make bad barrels so the timber constraint is quite severe & amphorae were used long after the Roman period. 5) amphora can and were made large, such large stationary pots could be refilled from skins. This combination could compete with barrels.


I Iglonghurst 18:06, 19 August 2006 (UTC) have changed the bit about a combine harvester because it did not thresh the grain

I think we can all sense there seems to be a stylistic problem here. Although its neutral, the style is rather negative. Ie. for example

"There was no discipline or profession, save for sth" - sounds sarcastic in tone.

"With the exception of sth, there generally was no discipline or profession" - sounds better. -- Natalinasmpf 16:01, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Press

The link to Press is a disambiguation page with many possibilities. Anyone know of a more specific article? GreatWhiteNortherner 00:23, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ongoing discussion on Roman Technology: Roman Army Talk

Appropriate for Wikipedia?

-- Mik 01:27, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Name of the article

I would like to change the name of the article to "Roman technology" because

  • the ancient is redundant, since it is clear that the ancient Romans are meant and not the inhabitants of modern Rome or whoever.
  • 'Roman technology' will make directs hits in the search function more likely than this three worder.
  • in the alphabetically sorted category list 'technology' people are also more likely to find something which starts with a "R" than with an "A"

What do you think? Gun Powder Ma 12:28, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

There is a redirect from Roman technology to this article. It looks like it was originally named Roman technology and someone renamed it to Ancient Roman technology (creating the redirect). Since there is a redirect, your "b" is already met. You can also sort categories (see WP:CAT#Category_sorting) which would take care of your "c". I don't have a problem with renaming it , but I recommend you list it at WP:RM. -- JLaTondre 12:59, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I listed my request there. Additionally, I want to point out that the other technology article like 'Medieval technology' and 'Renaissance technology' (soon to come) also have concise, easy-to-find names. Also, all subcategories are also called 'Roman road', 'Roman aqueduct', "Roman bridge', 'Roman military' without the additional 'ancient'. Gun Powder Ma 13:20, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Went ahead. Now main article and its subcategories are named in an analog matter (see above). Gun Powder Ma 17:53, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge with Greek technology?

I've noticed there are a lot of elements on this page that could be described as 'Greek', or rather 'Hellenistic/Alexandrian' (whichever you prefer), given the continuity between both Greece and Rome and the influences they exerted on one anotheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer (well into the Imperial period most of this incidental innovation came from the Greek world) it seems rational to merge the Greek technology page with this one into a Greco-Roman Technology page, give a bit of background about how the tech developed from one period to the next etc... --86.129.105.38 (talk) 11:35, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bath at Bath

Green algal growth? Ive been to bath, and that color was present in all the water, including the inlet - it looked to me like it was due to copper salts. The bath is fed by a natural hot spring with a very high mineral concentration. Someone should check this claim and see which explanation is correct: laka Algae or minerals? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.101.122.85 (talk) 09:36, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Roman Dams

I have started a new section on dams since there is a corpus of information available now and shouldbe addressed in this article. Helpers welcome! Peterlewis (talk) 13:50, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Wouldn't it make sense to also create articles as Roman dam and Roman mining to treat the matter more in-depth and complement others such as Roman road and Roman bridge? I'd be interested, if the Romans really knew and built arch dams, or whether the roughly semi-circular form of some of their dams was more accidental. I can provide material if wished. Gun Powder Ma (talk) 02:22, 8 April 2008 (UTC)