Ancient Building Technology ─ Historical Background

Ancient Building Technology is the first modern English-language survey of building technology in a period from prehistory to the end of the Classical World in the region of Europe, the Middle East and the Mediterranean basin. After an historical survey of construction from first shelters to late antique building, the volume considers materials of construction, structural systems (framed, load-bearing etc.), processes of construction (project drawings, site preparations, equipment and works organisation), forms of constructions (foundations, walls, floors etc.) and concludes with a discussion of the evolution and diffusion of building technology and of the role of social and technical factors, culture and civilisation in its development.

G.R.H. Wright studied history, law and architecture. He taught at the University of Munich and spent a lifetime recording and restoring monuments throughout the Mediterranean, the Middle East, East Africa and Southern India. His many publications include equally works on the History of Architecture and on the History of Religion, as also technical accounts of restoration projects.