Anchoring Science and Technology in Greco-Roman Antiquity

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.

"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

• ForewordList of Figures1 Anchoring, Science and Technology in Greco-Roman Antiquity—an IntroductionMiko Flohr, Teun Tieleman, and Stephan MolsPart 1: Anchoring2 How the Romans Conceived their Roads: Inner Experience in the Anchoring of Technological InnovationJames W. McAllister3 Anchoring Innovation as a Form of Social Construction of TechnologyWiebe E. Bijker4 Beyond Innovation: Early Modern European Technological ValuesLorraine Daston5 Ancient Greek Doors and Their HumansIneke SluiterPart 2: Innovation6 The Reinforcement System of the Theban Treasury in DelphiJean Vanden Broeck-Parant7 From Ashlar to Brick: Anchoring and Innovation in Roman Building PracticeMiko Flohr8 Tiberius and the Threat of InnovationSerena Connolly9 Functional Innovation in Bookcraft in Roman EgyptMark de KreijPart 3: Technology10 Anchoring, Innovation, and Ancient Near Eastern TechnologyJill L. Baker11 From Hand-Bow to Torsion Artillery Devices: Technological Innovation and the Human FactorMaria Gerolemou12 Risky Business: Anchoring Blown Glass and Terra Sigillata Production in the Face of RiskAnna Soifer13 Models and Modeling in Roman TechnologyRabun Taylor14 Of Myths and Machines: Anchoring Technology in Mythology in Imperial RomeMichiel MeeusenPart 4: Science15 Authorizing Prognosis in Prometheus BoundMarianne Govers Hopman16 Anchoring in tekhnê. Weaving and Plato’s Distinction of Pure and Applied KnowledgeGiovanni Fanfani, Ellen Harlizius-Klück, and Annapurna Mamidipudi17 Cultural and Cognitive Anchoring in Hero of Alexandria’s MetricaCourtney Roby18 Galen’s Use of Hippocrates as an Anchor for Medical InnovationTeun TielemanIndex