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ME 106 ENGINEERING IN ANTIQUITY – Fall 2009
FINAL PROJECTS Due Tuesday, December 15
An important part of this course is the research paper that each student must submit. The
primary goal is for you to dig deeper in and learn more about an ancient engineering project that
may interest you. Another goal is to pull together some of the material that we have learned in
class, and use this as background for a study of your own.
Your paper will focus on one published technical paper that can be easily retrieved from
the journal literature. Your job is to study this paper, and then summarize it in your own written
report. The report must include.
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The objective(s) of the paper,
the evidence described in the paper,
the argument presented by the author(s),
provide critical comments about the limitations of the paper and
indicate ways in which you would extend this work if you had the resources to do so.
The projects marked with ***** are more intensive on the research side because they
require the application of substantial engineering analysis on your part, but involve less reading.
Reports must be typewritten with double spacing and three to five pages long. Figures and tables
should be put at the end in a separate appendix and do not count towards the length of the paper.
Deadlines:
Monday, 7 December: select paper for the project and email title to Prof. Perucchio,
Tuesday, 15 December: hand in (do not email) your report by noon (you can bring it to my office
or leave it with the ME secretary in Hopeman).
Here is a list of available papers and projects.
1.
Lynne Lancaster, Building Trajan’s column, Amer. J. of Archaeology 103 (1999)
419-439. [JSTOR]
2.
Lynne Lancaster, Building Trajan’s Markets 2: The construction Process, Amer. J. of
Archaeology 104 (2000) 755-785. [JSTOR]
3.
Lynne Lancaster, The process of building the Colosseum: the site, materials, and
construction techniques, J. of Roman Archaeology 18 (2005) 57-82. [Rush Rhees]
4.
Jay R. Lund and Joseph P. Byrne, Leonardo da Vinci’s tensile strength tests:
Implications for the discovery of engineering mechanics, Civil Engineering and
Environmental Systems (2000) 1-8. [Google scholar]
5.
Andrew Wilson, Machines, power and the ancient economy, J. Roman Studies 92
(2002) 1-32. [JSTOR]
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6.
M. I. Finley, Technical innovation and economic progress in the ancient world,
Economic History Review, 18 (1965) 29-45. [JSTOR]
7.
A. W. Parsons, A Roman water-mill in the Athenian agora, Hesperia 5 (1936) 70-90.
[JSTOR]
8.
J. J. Coulton, Lifting in early Greek architecture, J. Hellenic Studies 94 (1974) 1-19.
[JSTOR]
9.
A. Matthies, Medieval treadwheels: Artists’ views of building construction,
Technology and Culture 33 (1993) 520-547 [JSTOR]
10.
G. Scaglia, Drawings of machines for architecture from early quattrocento in Italy, J.
Society of Architectural Historians, 25 (1966) 90-114 [JSTOR]
11.
M. D’Alton, The New York Obelisk or How Cleopatra's Needle Came to New York
and What Happened When It Got Here, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 50, No.
4 (1993) 3-72. [JSTOR]
12.
A. Wirshing, How the obelisks reached Rome: evidence of Roman double-ships, Int.
J of Nautical Archaeology, 29 (2000) 273-283. [ILL – RP]
13.
Mark Wilson Jones, Doric measure and architectural design 1: The evidence of the
relief from Salamis, Amer. J. of Archaeology 104 (2000) 73-93. [JSTOR]
14.
Rabun Taylor, A literary and structural analysis of the first dome of Justinian’s Hagia
Sophia, Constantinople, J. Soc. Architectural Historians 55 (1996) 66-78. [JSTOR]
15.
Robert Mark and P. Hutchinson, On the structure of the Roman Pantheon, Art
Bulletin 68 (1986) 24-34. [JSTOR]
16.
R. A. Jewett, Structural antecedents of the I-beam, 1800-1850, Technology and
culture VIII (1967) 346-362. [JSTOR]
17.
W. B. Dinsmoor, Structural iron in Greek architecture, Amer. J. Archaeology 26
(1922) 148-158. [JSTOR]
18.
R. J. Mainstone, Structural analysis, structural insights, and historical interpretation,
J. Soc. Art Historians 56 (1997) 316-340. [JSTOR]
19.
E.T. Morris, G. Black, S.O. Tobriner, Report on the application of Finite Element
Analysis to Historic Structures: Westminster Hall, London, J. Soc. Architectural
Historians 54 (1995) 336-347. [JSTOR]
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20.
L.T. Courtenay and R. Mark, The Westminster Hall roof: a historiographic and
structural study, J. Soc. Architectural Historians, 46 (1987) 374-393. [JSTOR]
21.
D. Yeomans, Inigo Jones’s roof structures, Architectural History, 29 (1986) 85-101.
[JSTOR]
22.
Janet Delaine, Structural experimentation: the lintel, arch, corbel and tie in western
Roman architecture, World Archaeology 21 (1990) 407-424. [JSTOR]
23.
Jacques Heyman, “Gothic” construction in ancient Greece, J. of the Society of
Architectural Historians 31 (1972) 3-9. [JSTOR]
24.
Qian Ling-Xi, New insight into an ancient stone arch bridge-the Zhao-Zhou bridge of
1400 years old, Int. J. Mech. Sciences 29 (1987) 831-843. [ILL]
25.
K. D. Alexander, Robert Mark and J. F. Abel, The structural behavior of medieval
ribbed vaulting, Journal Soc. of Architectural Historians 36 (1977) 241-251. [JSTOR]
26.
M. Wolfe and R. Mark, Gothic Cathedral Buttressing: The Experiment at Bourges
and Its Influence, Journal Soc. of Architectural Historians 33 (1974) 17-26. [JSTOR]
27.
Gorham P. Stevens, Concerning the curvature of the steps of the Parthenon, Amer. J.
Archaeology 38 (1934) 533-542. [JSTOR]
28.
Norman A. F. Smith, The Roman dams at Subiaco, Technology and Culture, 11
(1970), 58-68. [JSTOR]
29.
George F. W. Hauck, Structural design of the Pont du Gard, Journal of structural
engineering 112 (1986) 105-120. See also Hauck’s article in Scientific American
(March 1989). [RP]
30.
J. W. Shaw, A double-sheaved pulley block from Kenchreai, Hesperia 36 (1967) 389401. [JSTOR]
31.
***** Structural analysis of the Cimone bridge designed by Palladio (The four books
of Architecture, Third Book, Chap. VII).
32.
***** Structural analysis of the main roof truss of the Basilica of St Paul-outside-theWalls (J-P Adam, Roman Building: Materials and Techniques, 1994, p.212).
33.
***** Structural design of timber falsework for the construction of a Roman arch (C.
O’Connor, Roman Bridges, 1993, p. 174).