06-13-2006, 03:02 PM
Quote:I read somewhere something along the lines that in the Doomesday book over 1000 mills were recorded, but that no mills of that period have been discovered so far. If this ratio of 1000 recorded, but 0 excavated water mills is only remotely correct, then we have to assume for the 50 or so known Roman water mills a vastly greater number to have existed.
Oh, there are plenty of excavated medieval water mills. The oldest I know of in the british isles is one in Herefordshire, dated to 696AD by the very accurate method of dendrochronology, and some 6 have been dendrochronologically dated dated to the early to high middle ages in that county alone, and over 350 excavated remains undated, as medieval and early modern watermills up to the 18th century are difficult to tell apart without carbon or dendrochronological dating (expensive)- the technology did not change much (numbers from Tonkin; "Windmills in Herefordshire", A Herefordshire Misceallany, 2000). They aren't mentioned very often because no-one regards it as much of a surprise that watermills was extensively used in the medieval period (it is mentioned so extremely frequently in written sources, after all). All this without a medievalist Andrew Wilson to spesifically look for sources of water power in the period... the archaeological record is overflowing with medieval water power on a scale impossible to match in roman archaeology even in the ideal preservation conditions of north africa. Williams' research (or what I have read of it) seem to indicate that the romans (or rather their subjects) tended toward taking over pre-roman methods and set-ups in water power instead of imposing a new roman-style own regimen (as happened with architecture). This did not encourage technological diffusion in this area thorough the empire - a very different attitude than, for example, the monastic orders of the medieval church, especially the Benedictians and Cistercians, who would actively promote and spread the use of labor-saving devices in agriculture and production.
Vitruvius sort of says it all when he lists the waterwheel in his De Architectura amongst "devices that are rarely employed".
The Domesday Book does indeed record 5624 mills in 3463 manors out of around 9250 manors.
Villard de Honnecourt might be the source of the earliest possible escapement device in Europe. Possibly a master builder in Picardy, around 1230 or so he compiled a lot of sketches and notes on a broad array of subjects (much as Leonardo da Vinci would be three hundred years later, he was often attributed as "the inventor" of a lot of the devices he drew, although it seems, from his notes as for Leo's, that the drawings are simply recreations of existing technology). One of the sketches include what might be a very early escapement, ( http://orgs.uww.edu/avista/engines.htm ) althought the limitations of 13th century drawing style makes the issue a bit muddled. Similar problems arise when trying to decode contemporary islamic engineering, like Al-Faranj's Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices - sadly, 13th century drawing is less naturalistic than 13th century sculpture.
