What the Ancients Knew

     I was at the BIG house I clean.  I have permission to turn on the electronics and sometimes I do.  I click the on button and after an hour or so of CNN or whatever the homeowner left the television on last, I go looking for some less depressing sounds to play in the background while I work.  Last week, I found a marathon of the Science Channel's program, What the Ancients Knew.  The narrator has a soothing voice and the graphics can be stunning.  

     Each program featured a different ancient civilization and their technology in building that civilization or it's defense.  I continued to work through the house but was walking past the room with the TV on several occasions that caught my eye.  Let me recommend you DVR the series and watch it, taking notes on subjects you may want to investigate in depth later.  The video series is expensive.  You could buy a marine battery and an inverter, seriously.  

      Barring the cost of the DVDs, there is a lot we can learn from the ancient civilizations that they didn't bother to teach us in high school.  I remember most conversations in school about the ancients centering on literature or art.  As a prepper, I now feel a little cheated that I had to be 50+ years old, and watching the Science Channel to see an operating hand held Archimedes  screw, which is a water lifter that, used by the Egyptians, made them great and strong in their time.  

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      Also, I think I remember the name of the science teacher that cheated me by staging six weeks of discussions on Evolution followed by forced debates that ended friendships.  I think I would have enjoyed learning how to lift water out of a lake and putting it to good use.  I would have enjoyed learning how to properly weight a trebuchet or how to heat a stone floor.  Those frisky Romans!   Today's homes require gauges and pressure valves to install steam floor heat, the Romans built tunnels to let heated water warm the floors.  Many older homes have the space for this as a retrofit, (post TEOTWAWKI when the inspectors are busy surviving) new retreats could be built with this heat feature in mind.  

      I think I should get a few books on colonial American life and technology, now that my education is mine to control, I will add books on ancient ways to my reading lists.  I want to know what they knew living without electricity and electronics.  I want to build some of their devices and try them out.   


      I am sure my grandson will have a good time this summer when I pull out the experiments.  He won't even know he is learning something useful until I tell him, as long as I keep it fun and maybe we will make a few sparks as well.