Chemistry And Chemical Technology In Ancient Mesopotamia

The fifth volume of Dr Needham's immense undertaking, like the fourth, is subdivided into parts for ease of assimilation and presentation, each part bound and published separately. The volume as a whole covers the subjects of alchemy, early chemistry, and chemical technology (which includes military invention, especially gunpowder and rockets; paper and printing; textiles; mining and metallurgy; the salt industry; and ceramics).

Chemical Technology is based on lectures the author gave at the Technische Hochschule of Karlsruhe and at the University of Freiburg. Part 1 of this book deals with chemical technology and describes subjects dealing with apparatus, unit operations, and chemical economics. The text reviews industrial chemical reactions, raw materials preparation for reaction, thermal and catalytic processes, and a history of chemical technology. This part also addresses transportation, storage of raw materials, and the design and construction of a chemical factory. Part 2 concerns special chemical technology, including topics such as raw material upgrading; processing of products in the chemical industry; and unit processes application toward consumer goods production. This part reviews materials sourcing from animals, minerals, and vegetables, such as processing of products from living organisms, the recovery of sugar, starch, and other carbohydrates. The book also reviews products of the chemical industry including low-molecular weight consumer goods, detergents, aromas, explosives, plastics, elastomers, synthetic leather, textile, and some building materials. Chemistry students, chemical and process technology students, and mechanical engineering students with interest in chemistry will find this book valuable.

In this volume the authors translate and annotate key passages from ancient authors to provide a history and an analysis of the origins and development of technology. Among the topics covered are: * energy * basic mechanical devices * agriculture * food processing and diet * mining and metallurgy * construction and hydraulic engineering * household industry * transport and trade * military technology. The sourcebook presents 150 ancient authors and a diverse range of literary genres, such as, the encyclopedic Natural Histories of Pliny the Elder, the poetry of Homer and Hesiod, the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle and Lucretius and the agricultural treatise of Varro. Humphrey, Oleson and Sherwood provide a comprehensive and accessible collection of rich and varied sources to illustrate and elucidate the beginnings of technology. Glossaries of technological terminology, indices of authors and subjects, introductions outlining the general significance of the evidence, notes to explain the specific details, and a recent bibliography make this volume a valuable research and teaching tool.

This is the first systematic attempt to survey in detail the archaeological evidence for the crafts and craftsmanship of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians in ancient Mesopotamia, covering the period ca. 8000-300 B.C.E. As creators of some of the earliest farming and urban communities known to us, these people were among the first pioneers of many crafts and skills that remain fundamental to modern ways of life. Many of the raw materials for crafts had to be imported from outside the river valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, providing an unusually sensitive indicator of the commercial and cultural contacts of Mesopotamia. In this book, Dr. Moorey reviews briefly the textual evidence, and then goes on to examine in detail the material evidence for a wide range of crafts using stones, both common and ornamental, animal products--from hippopotamus ivory to ostrich egg-shells--ceramics, glazed materials and glass, metals, and building materials. With a comprehensive bibliography, this will be a key work of reference for archaeologists and those interested in the early history of crafts and technology, as well as for specialist historians of the ancient Near East.