---
title: "History of engineering"
chunk: 1/2
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_engineering"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:59:34.588219+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

The concept of engineering has existed since ancient times as humans devised fundamental inventions such as the pulley, lever, and wheel. Each of these inventions is consistent with the modern definition of engineering, exploiting basic mechanical principles to develop useful tools and objects.
The term engineering itself has a much more recent etymology, deriving from the word engineer, which itself dates back to 1325,
when an engine’er (literally, one who operates an engine) originally referred to "a constructor of  military engines." In this context, now obsolete, an "engine" referred to a military machine, i. e., a mechanical contraption used in war (for example, a catapult). The word "engine" itself is of even older origin, ultimately deriving from the Latin ingenium (c. 1250), meaning "innate quality, especially mental power, hence a clever invention."
Later, as the design of civilian structures such as bridges and buildings matured as a technical discipline, the term civil engineering entered the lexicon as a way to distinguish between those specializing in the construction of such non-military projects and those involved in the older discipline of military engineering (the original meaning of the word "engineering," now largely obsolete, with notable exceptions that have survived to the present day such as military engineering corps, e. g., the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers).

== Ancient era ==
The ziggurats of Mesopotamia, the persepolic in Iran the pyramids and Pharos of Alexandria in ancient Egypt, cities of the Indus Valley civilization, the Acropolis and Parthenon in ancient Greece, the aqueducts, Via Appia and Colosseum in the Roman Empire, Teotihuacán, the cities and pyramids of the Mayan, Inca and Aztec Empires, and the Great Wall of China, among many others, stand as a testament to the ingenuity and skill of the ancient civil and military engineers.
The six classic simple machines were known in the ancient Near East. The wedge and the inclined plane (ramp) were known since prehistoric times. The wheel, along with the wheel and axle mechanism, was invented in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) during the 5th millennium BC. The lever mechanism first appeared around 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where it was used in a simple balance scale, and to move large objects in ancient Egyptian technology. The lever was also used in the shadoof water-lifting device, the first crane machine, which appeared in Mesopotamia circa 3000 BC, and then in ancient Egyptian technology circa 2000 BC. The earliest evidence of pulleys date back to Mesopotamia in the early 2nd millennium BC, and ancient Egypt during the Twelfth Dynasty (1991-1802 BC). The screw, the last of the simple machines to be invented, first appeared in Mesopotamia during the Neo-Assyrian period (911-609) BC. The Egyptian pyramids were built using three of the six simple machines, the inclined plane, the wedge, and the lever, to create structures like the Great Pyramid of Giza.
The earliest architect known by name is Imhotep. As one of the officials of the Pharaoh, Djosèr, he probably designed and supervised the construction of the Pyramid of Djoser (a Step Pyramid) at Saqqara in Egypt around 2630-2611 BC. He may also have been responsible for the first known use of columns in architecture.
Kush developed the Sakia during the 4th century BC, which relied on animal power instead of human energy. Reservoirs in the form of Hafirs were developed in Kush to boost irrigation. Sappers were employed to build causeways during military campaigns. Kushite ancestors built speos between 3700 and 3250 BC. Bloomeries and blast furnaces were also created during the Meroitic period.
The earliest practical water-powered machines, the water wheel and watermill, first appeared in the Persian Empire, in what are now Iraq and Iran, by the early 4th century BC.
Ancient Greece developed machines both in the civilian and military domains. The Antikythera mechanism, an early known model of a mechanical analog computer, and the mechanical inventions of Archimedes, are examples of Greek mechanical engineering. Some of Archimedes' inventions, as well as the Antikythera mechanism, required sophisticated knowledge of differential gearing or epicyclic gearing, two key principles in machine theory that helped design the gear trains of the Industrial Revolution and are still widely used today in diverse fields such as robotics and automotive engineering.
Chinese and Roman armies employed complex military machines including the Ballista and catapult. In the Middle Ages, the Trebuchet was developed. In 132, polymath Zhang Heng invented the seismoscope for detecting earthquakes, which was not invented anywhere else in the world until 1,100 years later.
Huan Tan's Xinlun is the earliest text to describe the trip hammer device powered by hydraulics (i.e., a waterwheel), which was used to pound and decorticate grain.

== Middle Ages ==

=== Byzantine Empire ===
Byzantines translated and preserved countless Greek manuscripts and also made contributions to engineering in the early medieval world. Anthemius of Tralles, and Isidore of Miletus, were responsible for the architecture of the Hagia Sophia church in 532-537 CE.
The Greek fire, invented by Callinicus of Heliopolis was a weapon used by the Byzantines. It consisted of flammable substances such as petroleum, naphtha, quicklime, sulphur, resin and potassium nitrate.