How did ancient civilizations get the engineering knowledge required to build impressive structures?
In: Engineering
Trial and error. You build thing, thing fell over, so next time build thing out of stronger material.
The ancient structures really arent that impressive, its all just “Spend 100-1000 years trying and you will eventually get something”
Practice.
The Great Pyramids were the ultimate example of Old Kingdom Egyptian architecture, but they weren’t a first attempt. The Nile valley is littered with older, smaller pyramids of varying design and complexity. There are some examples that had collapsed during construction or soon after completion. Bent pyramids, stepped pyramids, lots of techniques and designs being workshopped.
Eventually they got very good at both the design and construction, and built the world wonders we’re all familiar with.
Survivorship bias. Those bad ones are long gone. The best ones stay. I’m sure they have great engineers too
We’ve been around for quite a while, so no wonder people came up with some cool stuff. they literally had millenia to pass on their knowledge. You can build a house without knowing abot mechanics or architecture, those came after, once people stopped to ask “why does xyz, work like that” That’s when math and engineering, or the scientific method for that matter, start to form.
Generally there was a huge death toll in the engineering feats in ancient history. So they were built on the lives of many. Thankfully no longer the case today.
A thing that I wish people understood is that pyramids aren’t shaped like that for fun. Engineering wise, a pyramid is one of the easiest structures to build without understanding physics very well. The whole structure is in compression, which is favorable for stone. Each layer is supported by a base that’s larger than it is, which helps with stability a great deal compared to a tower or vault shaped building. It’s predominantly solid, which likewise helps with stability. Pyramids are monument building on easy mode.
Very slowly. Start small and then over many thousands of years go bigger and bigger as you learn what works and doesn’t work.
Also other advancements like in tools, and increased trade means you get exposed to knowledge of other civilisations. And enables you to do more advanced stuff like being able to carve rocks and wood with better precision, transport stuff more easily, build stuff like cranes to help building bigger structures.
The same way we do now. Through trial and error people have learned which structures remain stable and which don’t. They learned that pyramids, arches, and triangles are good at spreading the load and not falling over.
The thing you have to think about is humans in even the neolithic period were not actually that much different to us. They were still just as capable of figuring stuff out and using quite impressive feats of engineering.
Look at stone age tools some time. The science, skill and knowledge used to knap useful tools is a lot higher tech than people realise.
People were selecting specific rocks, they were heat treating them to get better results, they had different methods and tools depending on what they were making and the results were surprisingly effective.
Humans are amazing at just figuring shit out.
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