Agricutlral Machinery Greece Essay

While the free essays can give you inspiration for writing, they cannot be used 'as is' because they will not meet your assignment's requirements. If you are in a time crunch, then you need a custom written term paper on your subject (agricutlral machinery greece)
Here you can hire an independent writer/researcher to custom write you an authentic essay to your specifications that will pass any plagiarism test (e.g. Turnitin). Waste no more time!

The agriculture of Hellensitic Italy was transformed not only by the introduction of a large number of technical innovations, but

also by a profound structural change. The last 2 centuries BC witnessed decisive steps towards the establishment of large scale

estates, latifundia, which were to play an important role in the course of the empire. Even though the cultivation units remained

relatively small for a long period, there was gradual transition to more extensive farming, largely based on slave labour.

Fortunately, we are able to gain a detailed insight into the agricultural life of the time. About 160BC, a Roman statesman, Cato the

Censor (234BC-149BC) wrote a book called De agricultura ("About Agriculture"). It is not a well arranged manual, but rather a

collection of unconnected notes comprising, apart from general instructions and a mention of religious customs, a description of

two of Cato's own estates near the border of Latium and Campania.

One farm - with an extent of 240 iugera (about 60ha. or 150 acres), managed by 13 people (mainly slaves) - specialised in the

cultivation of olives. The other specialised in viticulture, occupied 100 iugera (about 25ha. or 60 acres) and was managed by 16

people. Even though the descriptions refer to these two particular farms, they are doubtless fairly representative of normal

cultivation units in Late Republican Italy.

Besides workers and animals, all kinds of tools and equipment are listed, including the precise number of spades, axes, tongs,

working tables and so on used at each farm. As well as this, specialised agricultural equipment, Cato describes a series of

machines, showing that - in spite of his well-known aversion to everything foreign - he was perfectly aware of the recent

achievements of Greek technology.

The olives were crushed in 5 edge-runner mills (trapeta1) of various sizes (a recent invention), and the pulp was then transferred

to five presses of the most recent models, at least some of which were provided with block and tackle to hoist the weights. The

wine was pressed in similar machines; and there was a series of mills to process grain cultivated for household use: on the olive

farm, there was an Olynthian Mill, an improved saddle quem, a rotary hand mill (invented about 300BC), and a donkey mill. In the

vineyard, there was one Olynthian Mill and three donkey mills.

Cato describes his machines in detail, but they are best illustrated by later archaeological finds - from the cities of Vesuvius, in

particular. Variants of the same devices were found throughout the Roman Empire, from Britain and the Rhine frontier to Africa

and South East Asia. Some of the machines survived in Mediterranean countries well into the 20th Century.

A reconstruction of a lever-and-drum press for crushing olives, or grapes for winemaking. The olive pulp/grapes were

placed on the press bed (a) and covered with a lid (b). The pressing beam (c) was drawn down with levers (e) and a rope

running around a drum (d), shown here in the foreground. (Reconstructed from Article)

(1.) Trapeta (edge-runner mills) were two hemispherical segments hanging on a horizontal beam which were rolled over the

olives in order to separate the pulp from the stones (think of a barbell being used to crush olives on a stone block).

Source: Burenhult, G. (1994), Old World Civilisations: The Rise of Cities and States, Uni. QLD Press, Brisbane (AUS).

THE ARCHIMEDEAN SCREW

The Archimedean screw is a device used to elevate water for irrigation on fields which are higher than the source of water. A

long handle extends out of the upper end of the device which is cranked by hand. This action causes the spiral chambers inside the

device to rotate. The rotation forces water up into higher 'compartments'...

You should cite this paper as follows:

MLA Style
. EssayMania.com. Retrieved on 23 May, 2012 from
    <http://essaymania.com/132438/agricutlral-machinery-greece>

More College Papers

The Ethics Of Euthanasia. (Arguments Against Euthanasia) essay
Euthanasia nowadays, constitutes a moral issue that from time to time comes into view mainly from its supporters who, contrarily to more traditional opinions, believe that the man is the master of his life and that nobody else can force him to stay alive, especially when his life has become unbea

Do You Want To Be Teen Mother? essay
Teen pregnancy is a quite big problem in the society. How bad is the problem? The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the western industrialized world. Teen pregnancy costs the United States at least $7 billion annually. Four in 10 young women become pregnant at least

The Ethics Of Abortion essay
The Ethics of Abortion Abortion is a very controversial subject that has been continually argued over for the past few years and probably many years to come. The main controversy is should abortion be legalized? First before we get into the many sides of abortion we must first define abor