Ancient Inventions: War and Conflict

Jones, Terry

Television Director: Percival, Daniel

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Catalogue Number: SEV150-4

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Join Monty Python's Terry Jones on a tour of the ingenuity of our ancestors. Take a humorous yet factual look at inventions we think of as unique to modern times when really they have been around for centuries and many even longer. Some of the amazing discoveries include: automatic doors - first designed over 2000 years ago; accurate pregnancy tests - a regular feature of ancient Babylon; and tanks - actually devised by the Assyrians in 8 BC. Clearly the ancient world was every bit as inventive as our own.

War and Conflict

Julius Caesar never used a mobile phone, Socrates never consulted a digital watch, and Alexander the Great never flushed the lavatory. But that doesn't mean they were stupid. Archeologists tell us the human brain is the same size now as it was 60,000 years ago, and our ancestors were every bit as intelligent as we are today, so we shouldn't assume that the scientists and inventors of the past have nothing to teach us. In fact, when it comes to weapon's technology - well, none of it is as new as we think it is. Guided missiles, flame throwers, chemical weapons, tanks, even the theory of the atom bomb - they're all ancient inventions.