Research Guides: Resources on Ancient Science and Technology: Home

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Encyclopedias

ANCIENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

ENCYCLOPEDIAS AND GENERAL REFERENCE SOURCES

The following online reference books and databases are excellent places to start when researching the discoveries and achievements of the ancient Greeks and Romans in the fields of science and technology.

Oxford Classical Dictionary
This is the major one-volume scholarly encyclopedia in the English language on all aspects of the Greco-Roman world. To learn not only what we know about a topic in antiquity, but how we know it, this is the place to look. The articles tell which ancient (and modern) authors tell us about the topic, and exactly where in their writings to find it. The list of abbreviations for ancient authors and their works is the standard system used by classical scholars.

The following reference works are useful for doing research on all aspects of life in ancient Greece and Rome.

The following reference works are useful for doing research on the history of science and technology from the ancient world to the present.

AccessScience
This comprehensive encyclopedia covers the breadth of science and technology from the ancient world to the present. Containing thousands of articles, images, and multimedia content, it is a good place to start to find information on the lives and works of ancient scientists, as well as helpful introductory overviews of the scientific and engineering topics that you are researching.

Encyclopaedia of the History of Technology
This one-volume encyclopedia covers the history of technology, summarizing the development of many areas of human invention from prehistoric times to the present.