The Book of Lost Knowledge shines a spotlight on the unbelievable inventions and innovations of ancient peoples from across the world, and will change how you think about history and science.
This technological treasury of hidden histories uncovers gadgets and gizmos from the ancient and recent past, creating a richly detailed gift-book perfect for budding historians looking for a fresh take on the non-fiction they know and love.
See inside steam-powered robots from the Roman Empire, learn the secrets of medieval alchemy, and marvel at an earthquake detector from ancient China. Forget your dusty history books – this is a book of marvels that are stranger than fiction. Each entry is linked to a real, up-to-the-minute STEM topic to show just how much we can learn from the ancient world. Discover what the Rosetta Stone has in common with A.I. and what a shipwrecked artefact from ancient Greece can tell us about modern-day computers.
Spanning five continents and thousands of years, The Book of Lost Knowledge covers:
- Incredible innovations from the ancient world, including razor-sharp obsidian tools, a mystical Viking compass, and Aboriginal Australian songlines.
- Enormous libraries that once housed knowledge now lost to time, such as those of Alexandria and Baghdad.
- Spotlight inventors whose wildest dreams went unrealized – ranging from the original Renaissance Man, Leonardo da Vinci, to computing pioneer Ada Lovelace.
Did-you-know historical narratives meet in-depth detail on the science behind each invention, with text written by science communicator and children's non-fiction author Emily Dodd. The technologies, inventors and artefacts are reimagined in Christian Gralingen's puzzlebox illustrations, which open up these machines and invite readers of all ages to solve the mysteries of the distant past.
4 Introduction
6 Songlines
8 Mammoth Tusk Map
10 Lascaux Cave
12 Trepanning
14 Obsidian Toolmaking
16 Lyre
18 Inventor: Tapputi-Belatekalim
20 Mummification
22 Wheelchairs
24 Mechane
26 Yakhchal Ice House
28 Hygiene
30 Automated Pigeon
32 Inventor: Democritus
34 Camera Obscurer
36 Plato's Alarm Clock
38 Rosetta Stone
40 Puzzles and Games
42 Antikythera Mechanism
44 Inventor: Archimedes
46 Circus Maximus
48 Roman Concrete
50 Lycurgus Cup
52 Odometer
54 Robot Bar
56 Sunstones and lenses
58 Inventor: Heron of Alexandria
60 Houfeng Didong Yi
62 Baghdad Battery
64 Musical Instruments
66 Alchemy
68 Venetian Arsenal
70 Inventor: Leonardo da Vinci
72 Quipus
74 Aztec Sun Stone
76 Taqi al-Din
78 Rai Stones
80 Greek Fire
82 Submarines
84 Inventor: Ada Lovelace
86 Lost Libraries
88 Timeline
90 Timeline
92 Glossary
94 Index
96 Imprint
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Weight:500.00