Europe's First Industrial Complex Shows
the Brilliance of Ancient Engineers

Thanks for post, OP. This is a site I hope to visit one day, was aware of. I have been visiting Roman ruins since the middle sixties, and the more I learn the more impressed I am. I have been studying Roman engineering for many decades, and as an engineer myself, have been very impressed with what they accomplished. This mill complex, driven by an aquaduct produced huge quantities of flour, and was a huge accomplishment. Mill wheels are driven by the elevation change of the falling water, and because the last half a mile before the steep hill steadily rolls downward, the Romans built an elevated portion of the aquaduct, a slowly rising structure which let the water still run downhill, but at a very gentle rate, preserving as much of the precious elevation of the water until it reached the steep hillside of the mill site. And the tail race (outlet) of each overshot wheel became the head race (inlet) for the next wheel below it, with a pair of wheels on each level. If you go to Google Earth (the only Google thing I use) your can find the site and see the aquaduct ruins and the ruins of the mills. If you are interested in this there is a fabulous college course available via The Great Courses, a bit expensive but exceptionally well done. Taught by a former West Point professor, and he has built wonderful models of these wheels, and various catapults, etc. which he demonstrates. Roman architecture and technology is truly amazing. And it was lost for 1200 years after Rome fell. Read about the Pantheon, a building in Rome, or Trajan's Market, if amazing architecture and building structures interests you. I'm sure you know of the Colosseum in Rome, but there is much more to it that is not well known, both the construction and the intricate inner mechanical workings. https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/understanding-greek-and-roman-technology-from-catapult-to-the-pantheon.html

The course sometimes goes on sale for less, too.

The Romans definitely had impressive engineering, buildings, art, etc... They had people just as smart as today's innovators. The 'scary part' is that it all went backward as their society gradually unraveled.

Thank you for the details, #1, I suspected the Romans immediately although this is the first I've heard of these water wheels. They needed tons of food to supply their invading armies and Gaul was one of their earliest conquests north of Italy.

I think this is particularly fitting for today's times. By instilling as sense of infallibility in our children they have grown up to believe themselves the superior not only to their parents and others of today but all who came before them. They reject the founders as dead white slave holders, the consider themselves superior to Voltaire etc. and capable of creating paradise by following the path their inferiors took to hell on earth. I would hope that there is a sense of humbling in seeing grand achievements of the past. With two sticks in the ground the ancient Phoenicians not only proved they knew the earth was round but they knew it's diameter and distance from the sun. I have for my entire adult life had a strong belief that we completely underappreciate the achievements of the ancients and over estimate our own state.

The Romans knew how to harness the power of water. From the aqueducts to filling up the Colosseum with water for fake naval battles to mills like this. And that doesn't include their use of concrete and the building of roads. They took humanity, in engineering terms, about as far as it could go without electricity, oil and the combustion engine. Had they figured out electricity we might be speaking Latin today.

Reminds me of rust belt industries. Productive industry wrecked because of lack of investment. When the Roman administration collapsed there was no one to pay engineers and mechanics to perform the necessary maintenance. In the rust belt, instead in investing, it was more profitable to run the factories into the ground then shift production and supply overseas. Regardless of the reason, without continuing investment, industry declines and ultimately fails. The declining years of the old Soviet Union are another example of decay and collapse of industy.

Something that amazes me is that our modern engineers, with their access to technology, still cannot figure out with any certainty how so many things were constructed in ancient times. Like the pyramids for one. There are many more such examples that modern engineers are still trying to figure out. What kind of surprises me too is that with our ground penetrating radar now, why can't they figure out what is under the Sphinx?

#8, GPR doesn't go far in rock. The pyramids "mystery" was largely solved a few years back when they discovered ancient canals that led right to the base of the pyramids. The big rocks were floated to the site, and we have seen seige ramps that involve many, many tens of thousands of cubic yards of earth moved, one basket at a time. Some such ramps to top walls still exist. This was the way that the stones were raised, rollers on earthen ramps, and then the ramps were removed. We know much about Roman seige engines and the cranes used to build the Colosseum, too. The same tech was used for 1,200 years after, little improved until wrought iron was available in large quantities, middle 1800s. Until then, it was wood, stone and rope. And only stone survived long.