The Hydraulic Machines in Antiquity: A Reassessment

The project discusses the various explanations of the rising motion of water inside small pipes and tubes and tries to understand how the Greeks came to discuss these questions, and especially how they succeeded in dealing with the syphon, a very ancient apparatus which was already depicted in a tomb in Thebes dating around the middle of the second millennium BCE. As part of this project, the shaduf has been examined. This ancient water-lifting device seems not to have undergone any substantial changes up to our time. The results of this latest study were presented at a workshop entitled Water Management in Ancient Civilizations.