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Anchoring Science and Technology in Greco-Roman Antiquity
Series:
This collection of essays explores processes of innovation in Greco-Roman technology and science. It uses the concept of ‘anchoring’ to investigate the microhistories of technological and scientific practices and ideas. The volume combines broad, theoretical essays with more targeted case studies of individual inventions and innovations. In doing so, it moves beyond the emphasis on achievement that has traditionally characterized modern scholarship on ancient technology and science. Instead, the chapters of this volume analyse the manifold ways in which new technologies and ideas were anchored in what was already known and familiar, and highlight how, once familiar, technologies and ideas could themselves become anchoring points for inventions and innovations.
Miko Flohr is lecturer in ancient history at Leiden University. He has published widely on urban history, crafts and technology in the Roman world, including The World of the Fullo. Work Economy and Society in Roman Italy (OUP 2013).
Stephan Mols is associate professor of Classical and Roman Archaeology at Radboud University Nijmegen and professor by special appointment in the History of Nijmegen, with special focus on the Roman Period and the Roman Limes.
Teun Tieleman is Professor of Ancient Philosophy and Medicine at Utrecht University. His research focuses on Galen of Pergamum and his influence, Stoicism, theories of emotion, ancient anthropology as well as the relation between ancient philosophy and early Christianity.
Contributors are: Miko Flohr, Stephan Mols, Teun Tieleman, James W. McAllister, Wiebe E. Bijker, Lorraine Daston, Ineke Sluiter, Jean Vanden Broeck-Parant, Serena Connolly, Mark de Kreij, Jill L. Baker, Maria Gerolemou, Anna Soifer, Rabun Taylor, Michiel Meeusen, Marianne Hopman, Giovanni Fanfani, Ellen Harlizius-Klück, Annapurna Mamidipudi, Courtney Robey.
Stephan Mols is associate professor of Classical and Roman Archaeology at Radboud University Nijmegen and professor by special appointment in the History of Nijmegen, with special focus on the Roman Period and the Roman Limes.
Teun Tieleman is Professor of Ancient Philosophy and Medicine at Utrecht University. His research focuses on Galen of Pergamum and his influence, Stoicism, theories of emotion, ancient anthropology as well as the relation between ancient philosophy and early Christianity.
Contributors are: Miko Flohr, Stephan Mols, Teun Tieleman, James W. McAllister, Wiebe E. Bijker, Lorraine Daston, Ineke Sluiter, Jean Vanden Broeck-Parant, Serena Connolly, Mark de Kreij, Jill L. Baker, Maria Gerolemou, Anna Soifer, Rabun Taylor, Michiel Meeusen, Marianne Hopman, Giovanni Fanfani, Ellen Harlizius-Klück, Annapurna Mamidipudi, Courtney Robey.
"The authors of this volume consistently engage with the concept of anchoring, but the chapters are also remarkable for how much they productively reference each other. This cross-referencing has the effect of drawing the reader into the entire volume and helps link the arguments of individual chapters to the overall project. (...) The volume therefore has a both a coherent strength when read in its entirety, as well as in its individual chapters. Because of this overall coherence, one may be then tempted to read further chapters after beginning with a specific one. (...) The opening chapters do an excellent job of explaining the stakes and theoretical concepts of the book in a clear and straightforward manner that would be understandable to students. The chapters are well-illustrated, and the inclusion of color images allows the authors to demonstrate their arguments visually, which is crucial for these discussions of complex technologies. (...) This volume is both varied and yet coherent in its content and can serve a variety of uses to scholars of the ancient world."
Max Peers in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2026.03.11
"[This] beautifully produced collective volume (...) articulate[s] loud and clear the possibility of non human agency and non-human minds, through ancient narratives and other ancient reflections on the material and artificial world. (...) [It is] an excellent example of how scholars continue to have new and interesting things to say about canonical authors like Homer, Hesiod and Aristotle. (...) Anchoring Science and Technology runs a perfect gamut from Science and Technology Studies to archaeology to ancient history, to literature, to philosophy, mathematics and medicine. It even contains a fantastic case study (de Kreij) on innovation in bookcraft, which engages closely not just with the materiality of ancient book rolls, but also with what may have been the lived experience of reading one."
Serafina Cuomo in The Classical Review 16 February 2026
Max Peers in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2026.03.11
"[This] beautifully produced collective volume (...) articulate[s] loud and clear the possibility of non human agency and non-human minds, through ancient narratives and other ancient reflections on the material and artificial world. (...) [It is] an excellent example of how scholars continue to have new and interesting things to say about canonical authors like Homer, Hesiod and Aristotle. (...) Anchoring Science and Technology runs a perfect gamut from Science and Technology Studies to archaeology to ancient history, to literature, to philosophy, mathematics and medicine. It even contains a fantastic case study (de Kreij) on innovation in bookcraft, which engages closely not just with the materiality of ancient book rolls, but also with what may have been the lived experience of reading one."
Serafina Cuomo in The Classical Review 16 February 2026
Foreword
List of Figures
1 Anchoring, Science and Technology in Greco-Roman Antiquity—an Introduction
Miko Flohr, Teun Tieleman, and Stephan Mols
2 How the Romans Conceived their Roads: Inner Experience in the Anchoring of Technological Innovation
James W. McAllister
3 Anchoring Innovation as a Form of Social Construction of Technology
Wiebe E. Bijker
4 Beyond Innovation: Early Modern European Technological Values
Lorraine Daston
5 Ancient Greek Doors and Their Humans
Ineke Sluiter
6 The Reinforcement System of the Theban Treasury in Delphi
Jean Vanden Broeck-Parant
7 From Ashlar to Brick: Anchoring and Innovation in Roman Building Practice
Miko Flohr
8 Tiberius and the Threat of Innovation
Serena Connolly
9 Functional Innovation in Bookcraft in Roman Egypt
Mark de Kreij
10 Anchoring, Innovation, and Ancient Near Eastern Technology
Jill L. Baker
11 From Hand-Bow to Torsion Artillery Devices: Technological Innovation and the Human Factor
Maria Gerolemou
12 Risky Business: Anchoring Blown Glass and Terra Sigillata Production in the Face of Risk
Anna Soifer
13 Models and Modeling in Roman Technology
Rabun Taylor
14 Of Myths and Machines: Anchoring Technology in Mythology in Imperial Rome
Michiel Meeusen
15 Authorizing Prognosis in Prometheus Bound
Marianne Govers Hopman
16 Anchoring in tekhnê. Weaving and Plato’s Distinction of Pure and Applied Knowledge
Giovanni Fanfani, Ellen Harlizius-Klück, and Annapurna Mamidipudi
17 Cultural and Cognitive Anchoring in Hero of Alexandria’s Metrica
Courtney Roby
18 Galen’s Use of Hippocrates as an Anchor for Medical Innovation
Teun Tieleman
Index
List of Figures
1 Anchoring, Science and Technology in Greco-Roman Antiquity—an Introduction
Miko Flohr, Teun Tieleman, and Stephan Mols
Part 1: Anchoring
2 How the Romans Conceived their Roads: Inner Experience in the Anchoring of Technological Innovation
James W. McAllister
3 Anchoring Innovation as a Form of Social Construction of Technology
Wiebe E. Bijker
4 Beyond Innovation: Early Modern European Technological Values
Lorraine Daston
5 Ancient Greek Doors and Their Humans
Ineke Sluiter
Part 2: Innovation
6 The Reinforcement System of the Theban Treasury in Delphi
Jean Vanden Broeck-Parant
7 From Ashlar to Brick: Anchoring and Innovation in Roman Building Practice
Miko Flohr
8 Tiberius and the Threat of Innovation
Serena Connolly
9 Functional Innovation in Bookcraft in Roman Egypt
Mark de Kreij
Part 3: Technology
10 Anchoring, Innovation, and Ancient Near Eastern Technology
Jill L. Baker
11 From Hand-Bow to Torsion Artillery Devices: Technological Innovation and the Human Factor
Maria Gerolemou
12 Risky Business: Anchoring Blown Glass and Terra Sigillata Production in the Face of Risk
Anna Soifer
13 Models and Modeling in Roman Technology
Rabun Taylor
14 Of Myths and Machines: Anchoring Technology in Mythology in Imperial Rome
Michiel Meeusen
Part 4: Science
15 Authorizing Prognosis in Prometheus Bound
Marianne Govers Hopman
16 Anchoring in tekhnê. Weaving and Plato’s Distinction of Pure and Applied Knowledge
Giovanni Fanfani, Ellen Harlizius-Klück, and Annapurna Mamidipudi
17 Cultural and Cognitive Anchoring in Hero of Alexandria’s Metrica
Courtney Roby
18 Galen’s Use of Hippocrates as an Anchor for Medical Innovation
Teun Tieleman
Index
This book is targeted at students and scholars of classics, ancient history, ancient philosophy and Greco-Roman archaeology, and at specialists studying technological and scientific innovation in more recent historical periods.