Abstract
Every era invents a new way of writing history—or, at the very least, seeks to shed light on the present by examining the past in a different way. Over the past thirty years or so, the volume of data produced by archaeology—particularly through preventive excavations—has grown exponentially, thereby opening up new avenues of research into the history of ancient technology and economics. Given the scarcity of written sources, archaeology now provides a wealth of evidence that allows us to study the actual state of technology and economic development throughout antiquity.
