Archaeologists Find Athenian Naval Base

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

[Pat Mustard]

[Minimalist]

The Currach seems to have retained its essential construction from antiquity through the middle ages.  Animal hides stretched over a wooden frame.  They apparently put out onto the seas surrounding Ireland in them... which is a pretty gutsy thing to do.

[Pat Mustard]

The Currach seems to have retained its essential construction from antiquity through the middle ages.  Animal hides stretched over a wooden frame.  They apparently put out onto the seas surrounding Ireland in them... which is a pretty gutsy thing to do.

Well you know what they say, "when you've a bit of the black stuff in you, you'll do anything".

[Minimalist]

Hey, the Egyptians put to sea in reed boats.


One does wonder what the casualty rate was.

[Anomalocaris]

[Anomalocaris]

[Minimalist]

No jesus?

[Anomalocaris]

No jesus?

No Jesus is not enough. The decisive turn towards scientific revolution and modernity occurred in the western world because of the series of contingent events between the 12th and 17th centuries. It did not flow as any inevitable or natural consequence of any attribute of Rome or Greece.

If Rome didn't fall then, it would most likely fall later. At the very least, it would degenerate into an sclerotic empire that continues to produce small innovations, but makes no move towards real intellectual or economic foundations of modernity, rather like dynastic China.

[Pat Mustard]

No jesus?

No Jesus is not enough. The decisive turn towards scientific revolution and modernity occurred in the western world because of the series of contingent events between the 12th and 17th centuries.  It did not flow as any inevitable or natural consequence of any attribute of Rome or Greece.

If Rome didn't fall then, it would most likely fall later.  At the very least, it would degenerate into an sclerotic empire that continues to produce small innovations, but makes no move towards real intellectual or economic foundations of modernity, rather like dynastic China.

You're probably right on this. For example, Rome has access to both innovations necessary for railroads (both the rails themselves and the steam engines) plus the extensive mining metworks and deep mines themselves that were such an impetus when the steam engine revolution eventually happened. It is not just having the opportunity that leads to such innovations but also having the kind of mindset to be able to see and exploit those opportunities.

And with respect to the technical innovations which created the modern world it wasn't until the high renaissance when this mindset first manifested and not until the Enlightenment did it get really going. And it took massive changes away from Roman modes of thinking and institutions to get there.