"When requested to prepare a second edition of my Bitumen and Petroleum in Antiquity, which had long been out of print, it seemed to the author that the time had come to publish certain essays on ancient technology which he had written. We can not hope to improve on H. Blümner's Technologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe und Künste bei Griechen und Römern, which excellent book is now over fifty years old and unfortunately deals with the classical period only. Since new evidence on classical technology and, above all, abundant evidence on preclassical technology has become available, but this evidence is spread over many periodicals and publications. A series of small booklets, each containing a number of essays on ancient technology, covering both the pre- classical and classical period and demonstrating the continuity and the divergence, seemed justified. This book is the first of this series to describe certain phases of ancient technology, to point out the gaps in our knowledge and to try and use modern technology, philological and archaeological evidence to sketch ancient technology in such a way that it may be of some use to inform historians, archaeologists and philologists on the skill and the material world of the ancients. By co-operation many of the problems still unsolved could be unknotted and the author will be grateful for comments and additions to the material here presented. May these booklets promote discussion and research."