Timeline for Any examples when one civilization/country got technology from another and after due to lack of knowledge lost it
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
21 events
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| Feb 28, 2021 at 17:37 | comment | added | Noldorin | ... who in turn inherited much science and learning from the Ancient/Hellenistic Greeks, of course, though a great deal of specifically technological/engineering developments were their own. | |
| Feb 28, 2021 at 17:36 | comment | added | Noldorin | Good answer. I'm just going to quibble over (or at least clarify) this: "This technology was available to the Eastern Roman Empire - a Greek or hybrid Greco-Roman rather than strictly Roman culture and civilization". The early Eastern Roman Empire was definitely hybrid Graeco-Roman in culture, at least until the reign of Heraclius (early-mid 7th C), after which it was overwhelmingly Hellenic in culture. Nonetheless, the Byzantines kept calling themselves "Romanoi" until the very fall of Constantinople in 1453! Also, they inherited much technology from the (Italian-origin) Romans. | |
| Feb 28, 2021 at 17:27 | comment | added | Noldorin | @sempaiscuba I learnt that it was an explicitly Roman invention, enabled in part by having the ash available near Naples, and in part by the long-standing culture of engineering excellence that the Ancient Romans possessed. | |
| Jun 17, 2020 at 9:02 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Jan 18, 2020 at 3:17 | comment | added | jamesqf | @Pieter Geerkens: Because it is not a separate & distinct question, but a request for clarification of this one. That is, whether the Eastern Roman Empire ever actually lost the technology for concrete, but (like the US with manned space flight) simply didn't use it for a while, and then was destroyed. | |
| Jan 17, 2020 at 2:21 | comment | added | Pieter Geerkens | @jamesqf: If you have a question, then Ask a Question instead of posting a comment. Link back to this one as context. | |
| Jan 17, 2020 at 2:18 | comment | added | jamesqf | @Pieter Geerkens: My question is whether they lost the technology (that is, they no longer knew how) while continuing to exist as a culture, or whether the technology stopped being used because external pressures meant that they first had no reason to use it (IOW no significant construction because resources were directed to defense), then eventually ceased to exist as a culture. | |
| Jan 15, 2020 at 20:45 | comment | added | Pieter Geerkens | @jamesqf: Why does it matter, for the question, how they lost it? | |
| Jan 15, 2020 at 20:43 | comment | added | jamesqf | @Pieter Geerkens: But the invasions were a centuries-long process, so it seems a question of whether they actually lost the ability, or whether shrinking territory & other priorities meant that they had no occasion to use it. Kind of like the US manned spaceflight example in another answer. | |
| Jan 15, 2020 at 18:52 | comment | added | Pieter Geerkens | @jamesqf: I have not seen or heard of evidence of it's use in the late Medieval period, so I believe it was lost during the Byzantine decline prior to 1453. | |
| Jan 15, 2020 at 18:44 | comment | added | jamesqf | Did the Eastern Roman Empire actually lose this technology, or was it lost because the civilization itself was destroyed by Islamic invasions? | |
| Jan 15, 2020 at 0:05 | comment | added | Pieter Geerkens | @sempaiscuba The Eastern Roman empire got it from the Western Roman Empire - and lost it, either on their own or during the collapse to the Ottomans. | |
| Jan 15, 2020 at 0:02 | history | edited | Pieter Geerkens | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jan 15, 2020 at 0:00 | comment | added | sempaiscuba | I'm inclined to agree. So it probably doesn't meet the criteria of a technology that one civilization/country got from another. It's a great example of a technology that has been lost though. | |
| Jan 14, 2020 at 23:57 | comment | added | Pieter Geerkens | @sempaiscuba: If the Greeks had it we would see it all over the Mediterranean from well before the Romans. It would be in Persia, Iraq, Egypt, Spain, South France, etc. from well before the Romans. But no-one sees it except in Roman constructions. Pretty convincing. | |
| Jan 14, 2020 at 23:56 | history | edited | Pieter Geerkens | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jan 14, 2020 at 23:55 | comment | added | sempaiscuba | Yeah, AFAIK, the earliest archaeological evidence we have is from the Roman Republic, but it is a rather specialist subject. | |
| Jan 14, 2020 at 23:53 | comment | added | Pieter Geerkens | @sempaiscuba: Still from wikipedia: "It is uncertain when Roman concrete was developed, but it was clearly in widespread and customary use from about 150 BC; some scholars believe it was developed a century before that" If true, that is well within the height of the Roman Republic. The Romans were always masterful engineers after all. The Appian Way was built between 312–264 BC, still two generations before the oldest evidence for Roman concrete. If we knew just when and where it was developed, that in itself would be a clue to its manufacture. | |
| Jan 14, 2020 at 23:50 | comment | added | sempaiscuba | Did the Romans obtain their concrete technology from another civilisation, or did they invent it themselves? I'd always understood it was the latter, following experience with concrete made using volcanic ash from the Pozzuoli region near Naples. | |
| Jan 14, 2020 at 23:50 | history | edited | Pieter Geerkens | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jan 14, 2020 at 23:44 | history | answered | Pieter Geerkens | CC BY-SA 4.0 |