New book: Become an Ancient Engineer!

The book takes the reader from the museum of today to the world of ancient museums, the history of physics, geography and mathematics. It introduces us to some ancient inventions still in use today, such as the organ and its extant 1800-year-old version. The instructions in the book help you to try out the experiments of the ancient inventors in practice. You can find out how much a scientist made 2,000 years ago, or how much the world’s oldest puzzle costs on the art market today. Readers can also find out whether Archimedes liked to bathe, whether robots were in the Trojan War, what the hair of a woman in love had to do with astronomy, which ancient scientist was nicknamed Beta and how to measure the circumference of the Earth with two sticks. The book presents a unique marble tablet found in Budapest, which reveals that science was practised here too, and not just in distant Rome or faraway Alexandria. You can learn what a Roman engineer absolutely needed to know to build roads, bridges, aqueducts and cities. You can also read about who banned mathematics, how the Romans wrote the ‘Roman numerals’, how the Greeks marked their digits, whether they knew zero and how they used the abacus. Skilled readers can also learn how to count ‘digitally’. Interesting facts about ancient science in simple and accessible terms, through the eyes of an archaeologist. A book for young readers, which we also recommend to those of greater years who have been thirsting for knowledge. With new reconstruction videos of the Aquincum organ and aqueduct, and a cut-out puzzle supplement.

The book can be purchased at the Aquincum Museum’s ticket office for 2500 HUF.