Richard Lefebvre des Noëttes (1856–1936) was a French officer and early historian of technology. After his early retirement from the French army in 1901, Lefebvre devoted his time to technological studies, then quite a new field, becoming a main proponent of the negative impact of

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

on technological progress in

classical antiquity Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

. Although dissenting voices emerged as early as the 1930s, his primitivist views of ancient traction technology met with considerable success in the 1950s and 1960s when authorities like the medievalist

Lynn White Lynn Townsend White Jr. (April 29, 1907 – March 30, 1987) was an American historian. He was a professor of medieval history at Princeton from 1933 to 1937, and at Stanford from 1937 to 1943. He was president of Mills College, Oakland, from 1943 ...

and the sinologist

Joseph Needham Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham (; 9 December 1900 – 24 March 1995) was a British biochemist, historian of science and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology, in ...

, but also many classicists, relied rather uncritically on his research. Based on a thorough reexamination of the pictorial evidence, much of it not available in Lefebvre's time, as well as

experimental archaeology Experimental archaeology (also called experiment archaeology) is a field of study which attempts to generate and test archaeological hypotheses, usually by replicating or approximating the feasibility of ancient cultures performing various tasks ...

, modern scholars like

Georges Raepsaet Georges Raepsaet (born 3 August 1947) is a Belgian classical archaeologist and historian of antiquity. His main research interests are the archaeology of ancient technologies, especially traction systems in Greco-Roman land transport and f ...

have refuted Lefebvre's findings, particularly his glaring underestimation of the capacities of ancient horse-drawn

plough A plough or plow ( US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or ...

s and

carriage A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping an ...

s. His depreciation of the classical quarter-

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

in favour of the medieval stern-mounted rudder has also given way to a more balanced interpretation which argues that the two systems rather differed in the kinds of advantages they offered. Much unlike Lefebvre, recent scholarship has generally come to stress, within the productive limits characteristic of all pre-modern

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

societies, the innovative character of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Roman technology Roman technology is the collection of antiques, skills, methods, processes, and engineering practices which supported Roman civilization and made possible the expansion of the economy and military of ancient Rome (753 BC – 476 AD). The Roma ...

. Wilson, Andrew (2002): "Machines, Power and the Ancient Economy", ''

The Journal of Roman Studies The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies (The Roman Society) was founded in 1910 as the sister society to the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. The Society is the leading organisation in the United Kingdom for those intereste ...

'', Vol. 92, pp. 1–32

References

External links

Roman Traction Systems
– Horse, harness, wagon

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noettes, Richard Lefebvre Des 20th-century French historians Historians of science 1856 births 1936 deaths French male non-fiction writers