April 15, 2005
Appropriate for a high-school and general audience, this addition to the publisher's History of Science series describes scientific concepts in ancient societies, including the Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, and Roman worlds until the fall of the Roman Empire. Most of the entries are about people, concepts, and locales of the Greco-Roman world. Arrangement is alphabetical, supported by good cross-references and indexing. Examples of the more than 140 entries include " Agriculture, Epicureanism, Euclid, Mesopotamia, Meteorology, Roman roads and bridges, Vesuvius" , and" Women and science.\i0
Entries vary in length from around half of a page to more than five pages for " Aristotle, Geography/Geodesy" , and" Psychology." The lists of references attached to each entry includes both secondary sources and translations of primary sources. Some entries have black-and-white illustrations. The dictionary portion of the volume is followed by a chronology listing significant historical events along with the births of important individuals in the sciences and a bibliography divided into primary and secondary sources.
\b Arranged by broad scientific area, \b0" Groundbreaking Scientific Experiments, Inventions, and Discoveries of the Ancient World\b \b0" (Greenwood, 2004) has fewer entries though it covers a greater geographic expanse. With its accessible " A-Z" format, " Science in the Ancient World" is recommended for high-school, college, and public libraries. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)