Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-287) and index.

Introduction: how we know what we do about pre-literate and early literate cultures and their environment -- From savage hunter to primitive farmer: the new skills and tools essential to stock raising and agriculture (? -- 5000 B.C.) -- The spread of farming and the emergence of embryonic cities and of writing (5000-3000 B.C.) -- Of monuments, ships, metallurgy and military technology (3000-2000 B.C.) -- Of chariots, sea-going ships and the expansion of trade (2000-1000 B.C.) -- Of Greeks and roads and riding horses (1000 -- 300 B.C.) -- The late Greek and Roman engineers and their devotion to machinery (300 B.C. -- A.D. 500) -- The barbarians of Northern Europe, India, China and the New World.

Takes technology from chipped-stone industries of the Paleolithic period to the sophisticated tools and machines of the Roman. Includes a series of drawings that reconstruct from ancient writings and from archeological evidence objects never seen before by modern man.