Simple discoveries that would radically change ancient times or middle ages?

[LSCatilina]

I was thinking of the ships of the Veneti and such which were far more acclimatised to Atlantic waters. I'll have to give your link a thorough read.

Well, AFAIK, most of what was found and/or theorize was flat-bottomed boats (as the ones used in southern Gaul before Romans) with elevated bow and stern, which allowed for a good coastal navigation in Channel's and eastern Altantic sea and to brave tempests.
This being said, it also gave them an advantage in shallow sea comparatively to Romans, when it came to naval battle would it be only to greater manoeuvrability, even in open seas, as long there were winds.

It's possible that while built on same principles that you had a same distinction of use and then construction between trade ships and transport ships as you had later with Scandinavian knorr and drakkar.

 

[Arcavia]

Visual telegraph. Roman army would have the incentive to build a network all across Europe. Even if it could only be used for official communication it would have a massive impact.

 

[John Fredrick Parker]

Ignoring the OP, just responding to the thread title -- a good place to start in advancing Roman technology is to look at useful goods and/or techniques that other civilizations of the time had managed to master, of which paper-making and pig iron seem to me to be the most useful.

Paper and Pig Iron, both of which were used by Han China, are the obvious places to start, I’d say.

 

[Arkenfolm]

The best way to get better ancient/medieval hygiene is to have some sort of cultural belief about purification through fire spread widely. Instruments should be run through a fire to purify them before use. One should soak their hands (or even whole body) in boiling water (which perhaps also would count as fire, since the "essence" of the fire is being transferred to the water) before engaging in surgery or even just cooking food. Nobody knows that they're actually killing germs, but they'd probably be able to see that surgeons, doctors, etc. who fail to do this kill more of their patients. The downside is inevitable pseudoscience as well as a large increase in burns.

Also, variolation being used earlier and more globally rather than being restricted to only certain regions of the world.

Then again, both gliders and balloons require massive amounts of extremely light woven fabric. And with medieval fabric production still literally being a cottage industry, even a simple balloon would probably only be in reach of a wealthy royal court, not something one would see in an army train or on a battle ship.

It's why it wouldn't be a radical change, certainly, but I could imagine it would have all sorts of impacts on individual battles and campaigns as well as perhaps on culture. I've always thought the best place to put a few hot-air balloons would be along fortifications in border areas. There's already a large amount of supplies and soldiers in that area after all.

Getting the fabric (like silk) to make all those balloons is an entirely different problem.

Visual telegraph. Roman army would have the incentive to build a network all across Europe. Even if it could only be used for official communication it would have a massive impact.

Wouldn't it be extremely expensive to maintain and thus see little use?

 

[CountDVB]

Printing press earlier would be massively fascinating, since it would definitely effect written languages.

 

[Deleted member 114175]

One should soak their hands (or even whole body) in boiling water (which perhaps also would count as fire, since the "essence" of the fire is being transferred to the water) before engaging in surgery or even just cooking food.

That's a terrible idea, if ancient surgeons boiled their hands and caused burns and damage to the skin, they would get infected by the patients almost every time.

Soaking one's entire body in boiling water? The negative effects of this should be obvious, I think...

 

[Arkenfolm]

That's a terrible idea, if ancient surgeons boiled their hands and caused burns and damage to the skin, they would get infected by the patients almost every time.

Soaking one's entire body in boiling water? The negative effects of this should be obvious, I think...

Poor choice of words. Not so much boiling, but "recently boiled". As hot as your skin can take it.

 

[ennobee]

Printing press earlier would be massively fascinating, since it would definitely effect written languages.

Which brings us to an interesting question: With otl up to the renaissance literacy effectively limited to the nobility and clergy, would more widespread availability of cheaper books lead to more literacy, or would lack of widespread literacy limit the use of cheap mass-produced books?

 

[Analytical Engine]

What would you call Greek philosophy but rational.

Not based on actual evidence or experimentation?

Well, Aristotelian philosophy, anyway.

Poor choice of words. Not so much boiling, but "recently boiled". As hot as your skin can take it.

Warm water and decent soap is better than stupidly hot water. And less damaging to your skin.

 

[Jan Olbracht]

No one mentioned stirrups?

 

[Analytical Engine]

No one mentioned stirrups?

There's some dispute as to exactly how useful stirrups are, though.

 

[FillyofDelphi]

Poor choice of words. Not so much boiling, but "recently boiled". As hot as your skin can take it.

Or, another idea, to keep the ideological consistency why not have the idea of wearing coverings on the hands that had been soaked in boiling water? Thick leathers would be a good, easy to produce material. That way the concept of "the bubbling and steaming is a sign of the 'magic'/holiness at work" could still be applied to get the more consistent results

If the idea of holiness is in the bubbles,this could also feed into the use of soaps, and combined with the common tradition of holy wine/alcohol and you've just produced modern disinfectant thats portable in a bottle and so can see mass use. I can see maybe a Zoroastrian version of a medieval monestary that mass produces just such a thing, especially if it's relation to fire also sees glass blowing as a holy art

(Side note: This could make for a neat fictional culture concept, a fire cult producing a society where the preistly and many artisinal professions blur together into a proto-middle/bougious class)

 

[Falk]

Canning as food preservation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canning

 

[Arcavia]

Wouldn't it be extremely expensive to maintain and thus see little use?

Why would it be? The Empire maintained a network of courier posts IOTL and I doubt that the telegraph network would be terribly more expensive...

 

[PoorBoy]

Visual telegraph. Roman army would have the incentive to build a network all across Europe. Even if it could only be used for official communication it would have a massive impact.

Wouldn't it be extremely expensive to maintain and thus see little use?

The Great Wall of China essentially did double-duty as this, so it's plausible to have a semaphore telegraph system set up during Roman times.

If the Romans could build roads and aqueducts, I think they can afford to build a system of telegraph towers.

 

[Analytical Engine]

Wouldn't it be extremely expensive to maintain and thus see little use?

They did use one (sort of).

 

[Byzantine fanatic]

Did nobody think about rational philosophy? 99% of the people in the Mediaeval ages were fundamentalists.

What would you call Greek philosophy but rational.

everyone was fundamentalist religiously until Darwin, never mind the Middle Ages.

Greek rationalism was central to Mutazilism, which became the official religion of the state in the Abbasid Caliphate. The Mutazila philosophers combined Neoplatonism with Islam to create one of the more interesting thought experiments of the pre-modern era.

https://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/44795/lessons-from-islamic-history-the-mutaliza-and-ibn-hanbal/

This idea that everyone was fundamentalist is bunk, for the simple reason that fundamentalism as we think of it today did not exist prior to the late 20th century. It is largely a modern invention.

Obviously religious belief was far more dominant then than now. But the idea that everyone was a raving fanatic is silly. In fact one of the striking features about pre-modern religion is how varied it was. There was little agreement about anything, the closer one looks into the details.

 

[GTStinger]

How about the phonograph? It should be doable any time after the invention of the potters wheel.
Imagine the Roman emporer, pharaoh, pope, etc having their voice distributed to the far corners of the realm.

 

[clem attlee]

I am using fundamentalist in the sense of Biblical literalist. The remark was originally made to me by a C of I priest friend. I was divorcing modern fundamentalism from a more casual version in my remarks. IE I'm not saying that everyone was a raving fanatic. But yes religion has always been varied.

This idea that everyone was fundamentalist is bunk, for the simple reason that fundamentalism as we think of it today did not exist prior to the late 20th century. It is largely a modern invention.

Obviously religious belief was far more dominant then than now. But the idea that everyone was a raving fanatic is silly. In fact one of the striking features about pre-modern religion is how varied it was. There was little agreement about anything, the closer one looks into the details.[/QUOTE]

 

[Deleted member 114175]

How about the phonograph? It should be doable any time after the invention of the potters wheel.
Imagine the Roman emporer, pharaoh, pope, etc having their voice distributed to the far corners of the realm.

People would certainly think Caesar was a god, then.