Technologies Invented or Developed By The Romans
| Technology | Comment |
|---|---|
| Abacus, Roman | Portable. |
| Alum | The production of alum (KAl(SO4)2.12H2O) from alunite (KAl3(SO4)2.(OH)6) is archaeologically attested on the island Lesbos. This site was abandoned in the 7th century but dates back at least to the 2nd century AD. |
| Amphitheatre | See e.g. Colosseum. |
| Aqueduct, true arch | Pont du Gard, Segovia etc. |
| Arch, monumental | |
| Bath, monumental public (Thermae) | See e.g. Baths of Diocletian |
| Book (Codex) | First mentioned by Martial in the 1st century AD. Held many advantages over the scroll. |
| Brass | The Romans had enough understanding of zinc to produce a brass denomination coinage; see sestertius. |
| Bridge, true arch | See e.g. Roman bridge in Chaves or the Severan Bridge. |
| Bridge, segmental arch | More than a dozen Roman bridges are known to feature segmental (=flat) arches. A prominent example was Trajan's bridge over the Danube, a lesser known the extant Limyra Bridge in Lycia |
| Bridge, pointed arch | Possibly the earliest known bridge featuring a pointed arch is the 5th or 6th century AD Karamagara Bridge |
| Camel harness | The harnessing of camels to ploughs is attested in North Africa by the 3rd century AD |
| Cameos | Probably a Hellenistic innovation e.g. Cup of the Ptolemies but taken up by the Emperors e.g. Gemma Augustea, Gemma Claudia etc. |
| Cast Iron | Recently archaeologically detected in the Val Gabbia in northern Lombardy from the 5th and 6th centuries AD. This technically interesting innovation appears to have had little economic impact. But archaeologists may have failed to recognize the distinctive slag, so the date and location of this innovation may be revised. |
| Cement
Concrete |
Pozzolana variety |
| Crank handle | A Roman iron crank handle was excavated in Augusta Raurica, Switzerland. The 82.5 cm long piece with a 15 cm long handle is of yet unknown purpose and dates to no later than c. 250 AD. |
| Crank and connecting rod | Found in several water-powered saw mills dating from the late 3rd (Hierapolis sawmill) to 6th century AD (at Ephesus respectively Gerasa). |
| Crane, treadwheel | |
| Dam, Arch | Currently best attested for the dam at Glanum, France dated c. 20 BC. The structure has entirely disappeared. Its existence attested from the cuts into the rock on either side to key in the dam wall, which was 14.7 metres high, 3.9m thick at base narrowing to 2.96m at the top. Earliest description of arch action in such types of dam by Procopius around 560 AD, the Dara Dam |
| Dam, Arch-gravity | Examples include curved dams at Orükaya, Çavdarhisar, both Turkey (and 2nd century)Kasserine Dam in Tunisia, and Puy Foradado Dam in Spain (2nd–3rd century) |
| Dam, Bridge | The Band-i-Kaisar, constructed by Roman prisoners of war in Shustar, Persia, in the 3rd century AD, featured a weir combined with an arch bridge, a multifunctional hydraulic structure which subsequently spread throughout Iran. |
| Dam, Buttress | Attested in a number of Roman dams in Spain, like the 600 m long Consuegra Dam |
| Dam, Multiple Arch Buttress | Esparragalejo Dam, Spain (1st century AD) earliest known |
| Dome, monumental | See e.g. Pantheon. |
| Foot-powered loom | Before 298 AD, with a hint the invention arose at Tarsus |
| Flos Salis | A product of salt evaporation ponds Dunaliella salina used in the perfume industry (Pliny Nat. Hist. 31,90) |
| Force pump used in fire engine | See image of pointable nozzle |
| Glass blowing | This led to a number of innovations in the use of glass. Window glass is attested at Pompeii in AD 79. In the 2nd century AD hanging glass oil lamps were introduced. These used floating wicks and by reducing self-shading gave more lumens in a downwards direction. Cage cups (see photograph) are hypothesised as oil lamps. |
| Dichroic glass as in the Lycurgus Cup. Note, this material attests otherwise unknown chemistry (or other way?) to generate nano-scale gold-silver particles. | |
| Glass mirrors (Pliny the Elder Naturalis Historia 33,130) | |
| Greenhouse cold frames | (Pliny the Elder Naturalis Historia 19.64; Columella on Ag. 11.3.52) |
| Hydraulis | A water organ. Later also the pneumatic organ. |
| Hushing | Described by Pliny the Elder and confirmed at Dolaucothi and Las Médulas |
| Hydraulic mining | Described by Pliny the Elder and confirmed at Dolaucothi and Las Médulas |
| Hydrometer | Mentioned in a letter of Synesius |
| Hypocaust | A floor and also wall heating system. Described by Vitruvius |
| Knife, multifunctional | |
| Lighthouses | The best surviving examples are those at Dover castle and the Tower of Hercules at La Coruna |
| Leather, Tanned | The preservation of skins with vegetable tannins was a pre-Roman invention but not of the antiquity once supposed. (Tawing was far more ancient.) The Romans were responsible for spreading this technology into areas where it was previously unknown such as Britain and Qasr Ibrim on the Nile. In both places this technology was lost when the Romans withdrew. |
| Mills | M.J.T.Lewis presents good evidence that water powered vertical pounding machines came in by the middle of the 1st century AD for fulling, grain hulling (Pliny Nat. Hist. 18,97) and ore crushing (archaeological evidence at Dolaucothi Gold Mines and Spain). |
| Grainmill, rotary. According to Moritz (p57) rotary grainmills were not known to the ancient Greeks but date from before 160 BC. Unlike reciprocating mills, rotary mills could be easily adapted to animal or water power. Lewis (1997) argues that the rotary grainmill dates to the 5th century BC in the western Mediterranean. Animal and water powered rotary mills came in the 3rd century BC. | |
| Sawmill, water powered. Recorded by 370 AD. Attested in Ausonius's poem Mosella. Translated "the Ruwer sends mill-stones swiftly round to grind the corn, And drives shrill saw-blades through smooth marble blocks". Recent archaeological evidence from Phrygia, Anatolia, now pushes back the date to the 3rd century AD and confirms the use of a crank in the sawmill. | |
| Shipmill, (Though small, the conventional term is "shipmill" not boat mill, probably because there was always a deck, and usually an enclosed superstructure, to keep the flour away from the damp.) where water wheels were attached to boats, was first recorded at Rome in 547 AD in Procopius of Caesarea's Gothic Wars (1.19.8–29) when Belisaurius was besieged there. | |
| essentials of the Steam engine | By the late 3rd century AD, all essential elements for constructing a steam engine were known by Roman engineers: steam power (in Hero's aeolipile), the crank and connecting rod mechanism (in the Hierapolis sawmill), the cylinder and piston (in metal force pumps), non-return valves (in water pumps) and gearing (in water mills and clocks) |
| Watermill. Improvements upon earlier models. For the largest mill complex known see Barbegal | |
| Mercury Gilding | as in the Horses of San Marco |
| Newspaper, rudimentary | See Acta Diurna. |
| Odometer | |
| Paddle wheel boats | In de Rebus Bellicis (possibly only a paper invention). |
| Pewter | Mentioned by Pliny the Elder (Naturalis Historia34,160-1). Surviving examples are mainly Romano-British of the 3rd and 4th centuries e.g. and . Roman pewter had a wide range of proportions of tin but proportions of 50%, 75% and 95% predominate (Beagrie 1989). |
| Pleasure lake | An artificial reservoir, highly unusual in that it was meant for recreational rather than utilitarian purposes was created at Subiaco, Italy, for emperor Nero (54–68 AD). The dam remained the highest in the Roman Empire (50 m), and in the world until its destruction in 1305. |
| Plough | |
| iron-bladed (A much older innovation (e.g. Bible; I Samuel 13,20-1) that became much more common in the Roman period) | |
| wheeled (Pliny the Elder Naturalis Historia 18.171-3) (More important for the Middle Ages, than this era.) | |
| Pottery, glossed | i.e. Samian ware |
| Reaper | An early harvesting machine: vallus (Pliny the Elder Naturalis Historia 18,296, Palladius 7.2.2–4 ) |
| Sails, fore-and-aft rig | Introduction of fore-and-aft rigs 1) the Lateen sail 2) the Spritsail, this last already attested in 2nd century BC in the northern Aegean Sea Note: there is no evidence of any combination of fore-and-aft rigs with square sails on the same Roman ship. |
| Sails, Lateen | Representations show lateen sails in the Mediterranean as early as the 2nd century AD. Both the quadrilateral and the triangular type were employed. |
| Roller Bearings | Archaeologically attested in the Lake Nemi ships |
| Rudder, stern-mounted | See image for something very close to being a sternpost rudder |
| Sausage, fermented dry (probably) | See salami. |
| Screw press | An innovation of about the mid-1st century AD |
| Sewers | See for example Cloaca Maxima |
| Soap, hard (sodium) | First mentioned by Galen (earlier, potassium, soap being Celtic). |
| Spiral staircase | Though first attested as early as the 5th century BC in Greek Selinunte, spiral staircases only become more widespread after their adoption in Trajan's column and the Column of Marcus Aurelius. |
| Stenography, a system of | See Tironian notes. |
| Street map, early | See Forma Urbis Romae (Severan Marble Plan), a carved marble ground plan of every architectural feature in ancient Rome. |
| Sundial, portable | See Theodosius of Bithynia |
| Surgical instruments, various | |
| Tooth implants, iron | See |
| Towpath | e.g. beside the Danube, see the "road" in Trajan's bridge |
| Tunnels | Excavated from both ends simultaneously. The longest known is the 5.6-kilometre (3.5 mi) drain of the Fucine lake |
| Vehicles, one wheeled | Solely attested by a Latin word in 4th century AD Scriptores Historiae Augustae Heliogabalus 29. As this is fiction, the evidence dates to its time of writing. |
| Wood veneer | Pliny Nat. Hist. 16.231-2 |
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“Uses are always much broader than functions, and usually far less contentious. The word function carries overtones of purpose and propriety, of concern with why something was developed rather than with how it has actually been found useful. The function of automobiles is to transport people and objects, but they are used for a variety of other purposes—as homes, offices, bedrooms, henhouses, jetties, breakwaters, even offensive weapons.”
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