Ancient Inventions - City Life

Today on Far Future Horizons  we present a BBC documentary mini series released in 1998 and hosted by ex-Monty Python member Terry Jones entitled Ancient Inventions.

Ancient Inventions looked at the great inventions of the ancient world that shaped that helped shape today’s world.  The series is divided into three episodes, namely City Life, Sex and Love, and War and Conflicts.

In this first instalment of Ancient inventions we look at the innovations and inventions that made living in a modern metropolis possible. Terry Jones explores such important topics as water transport, concrete, and city grids,  the major and fundamental infrastructure of a city, ancient or modern, which could provide for its subsequent growth. 

Detail from a model of Ancient Rome

It took Christopher Columbus over eight weeks to cross the Atlantic. Nowadays, we can do it in less than eight hours in a jumbo jet. What would Columbus or Archimedes have made of it? Well, it doesn’t mean they were less intelligent than you or me. They were probably more intelligent. And maybe all this progress that modern man seems to be making is partly an illusion. Perhaps there are even things we can learn from the science and technology of ancient times. Take the city, for example. Cities seem so much the product of modern technology and yet, in fact, they are one of the most ancient of all inventions.

Ancient inventions, hosted by Terry Jones, is available on DVD through Amazon.com.

Ancient Inventions - City Life

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