The following is a list of some important medieval technologies. The approximate date or first mention of a technology in medieval Europe is given. Technologies were often a matter of cultural exchange and date and place of first inventions are not listed here (see main links for a more complete history of each).
Agriculture Carruca (6th to 9th centuries) A type of heavy wheeled plough commonly found in Northern Europe. The device consisted of four major parts. The first part was a
coulter at the bottom of the plough. The fourth part of the device was the team of eight oxen guided by the farmer. This type of wheeled plough made seed placement more consistent throughout the farm as the blade could be locked in at a certain level relative to the wheels. A disadvantage to this type of plough was its poor maneuverability. Since this equipment was large and led by a small herd of oxen, turning the plough was difficult and time-consuming. This caused many farmers to turn away from traditional square fields and adopt a longer, more rectangular field to ensure maximum efficiency.
Ard (plough) (5th century) While ploughs have been used since ancient times, during the medieval period plough technology improved rapidly. The medieval plough, constructed from wooden beams, could be yoked to either humans or a team of oxen and pulled through any type of terrain. This allowed for faster clearing of forest lands for agriculture in parts of Northern Europe where the soil contained rocks and dense tree roots. With more food being produced, more people were able to live in these areas.
Horse collar (6th to 9th centuries)
Horseshoes (9th century) While horses are already able to travel on all terrain without a protective covering on the hooves, horseshoes allowed horses to travel faster along the more difficult terrains. The practice of shoeing horses was initially practiced in the
Roman Empire but lost popularity throughout the Middle Ages until around the 11th century.
Crop rotation Two-field system In this simpler form of crop rotation, one field would grow a crop while the other was allowed to lie fallow. The second field would be used to feed livestock and regain lost nutrients through being fertilized by their waste. The system of crop rotation is still used today by many farmers, who will grow corn one year in a field and will then grow beans or other legumes in the field the next year.
Three-field system (8th century) While the two-field system was used by medieval farmers, a different system was also being developed at the same time. In a three-field system, one field holds a spring crop, such as barley or oats, another field holds a winter crop, such as wheat or rye, and the third field is an off-field that is left alone to grow and is used to help feed livestock. This device was the first practical means of
pressing wine on a flat surface.
Qanat (water ducts) (5th century) Ancient and medieval civilizations needed and used water to grow the human population as well as to partake in daily activities. One of the ways that ancient and medieval people gained access to water was through qanats, which were a water duct system that would bring water from an underground source or river source to villages or cities. A qanat is a tunnel that is just big enough that a single digger could travel through the tunnel and find the source of water as well as allow for water to travel through the duct system to farm land or villages for irrigation or drinking purposes. These tunnels had a gradual slope which used gravity to pull the water from either an
aquifer or a
water well. This system was originally found in middle eastern areas and is still used today in places where surface water is hard to find.
Architecture and construction Pendentive architecture (6th century) A specific spherical form in the upper corners to support a dome. Although the first experimentation was made in the 3rd century, it wasn't until the 6th century in the
Byzantine Empire that its full potential was achieved.
Artesian well (1126) A thin rod with a hard iron cutting edge is placed in the bore hole and repeatedly struck with a hammer, underground water pressure forces the water up the hole without pumping. Artesian wells are named after the town of Artois in France, where the first one was drilled by Carthusian monks in 1126.
Central heating through underfloor channels (9th century) In the early medieval Alpine upland, a simpler central heating system where heat travelled through underfloor channels from the furnace room replaced the Roman
hypocaust at some places. In
Reichenau Abbey a network of interconnected underfloor channels heated the 300 m2 large assembly room of the monks during the winter months. The degree of efficiency of the system has been calculated at 90%.
Rib vault (12th century) An essential element for the rise of
Gothic architecture, rib vaults allowed vaults to be built for the first time over rectangles of unequal lengths. It also greatly facilitated scaffolding and largely replaced the older
groin vault.
Chimney (12th century) The first basic chimney appeared in a Swiss monastery in 820. The earliest true chimney did not appear until the 12th century, with the fireplace appearing at the same time.
Segmental arch bridge (1345) The
Ponte Vecchio in
Florence is considered medieval Europe's first stone segmental arch bridge since the end of classical civilizations.
Treadwheel crane (1220s) The earliest reference to a
treadwheel in archival literature is in France about 1225, followed by an illuminated depiction in a manuscript of probably also French origin dating to 1240. Apart from tread-drums, windlasses and occasionally cranks were employed for powering cranes.
Stationary harbour crane (1244) Stationary harbour cranes are considered a new development of the Middle Ages; its earliest use being documented for Utrecht in 1244. The typical harbour crane was a pivoting structure equipped with double treadwheels. There were two types: wooden gantry cranes pivoting on a central vertical axle and stone tower cranes which housed the windlass and treadwheels with only the jib arm and roof rotating. These cranes were placed on docksides for the loading and unloading of cargo where they replaced or complemented older lifting methods like
see-saws,
winches and
yards.
Floating crane Beside the stationary cranes, floating cranes which could be flexibly deployed in the whole port basin came into use by the 14th century.
Clocks Hourglass (1338) Reasonably dependable, affordable and accurate measure of time. Unlike water in a
clepsydra, the rate of flow of sand is independent of the depth in the upper reservoir, and the instrument is not liable to freeze. Hourglasses are a medieval innovation (first documented in
Siena, Italy).
Mechanical clocks (13th to 14th centuries) A European innovation, these weight-driven clocks were used primarily in clock towers.
Mechanics Compound crank The Italian physician
Guido da Vigevano combines in his 1335
Texaurus, a collection of war machines intended for the recapture of the Holy Land, two simple cranks to form a compound crank for manually powering war carriages and
paddle wheel boats. The devices were fitted directly to the vehicle's axle respectively to the shafts turning the paddle wheels.
Metallurgy Blast furnace (1150–1350) Cast iron had been made in China since before the 4th century BC. European cast iron first appears in Middle Europe (for instance Lapphyttan in Sweden, Dürstel in Switzerland and the Märkische Sauerland in Germany) around 1150, in some places according to recent research even before 1100. The technique is considered to be an independent European development.
Milling Ship mill (6th century) The ship mill is a Byzantine invention, designed to mill grains using hydraulic power. The technology eventually spread to the rest of Europe and was in use until ca. 1800.
Paper mill (13th century) The first certain use of a water-powered
paper mill, evidence for which is elusive in both Chinese and Muslim paper making, dates to 1282.
Rolling mill (15th century) Used to produce metal sheets of an even thickness. First used on soft, malleable metals, such as
lead,
gold and
tin. Leonardo da Vinci described a rolling mill for wrought iron.
Tidal mills (6th century) The earliest tidal mills were excavated on the Irish coast where watermillers knew and employed the two main
waterwheel types: a 6th-century tide mill at Killoteran near
Waterford was powered by a vertical waterwheel, while the tide changes at
Little Island were exploited by a twin-flume horizontal-wheeled mill (c. 630) and a vertical undershot waterwheel alongside it. Another early example is the
Nendrum Monastery mill from 787 which is estimated to have developed seven to eight
horsepower at its peak.
Vertical windmills (1180s) Invented in Europe as the pivotable post mill, the first surviving mention of one comes from Yorkshire in England in 1185. They were efficient at grinding grain or draining water. Stationary tower mills were also developed in the 13th century.
Water hammer (12th century at the latest) Used in metallurgy to forge the metal blooms from
bloomeries and
Catalan forges, they replaced manual hammerwork. The water hammer was eventually superseded by
steam hammers in the 19th century.
Navigation Dry compass (12th century) The first European mention of the directional compass is in
Alexander Neckam's
On the Natures of Things, written in Paris around 1190. It was either
transmitted from China or the Arabs or an
independent European innovation. Dry compass were invented in the Mediterranean around 1300.
Astronomical compass (1269) The French scholar
Pierre de Maricourt describes in his experimental study
Epistola de magnete (1269) three different compass designs he has devised for the purpose of astronomical observation.
Stern-mounted rudders (1180s) The first depiction of a pintle-and-gudgeon rudder on church carvings dates to around 1180. They first appeared with
cogs in the North and Baltic Seas and started to be used in the Mediterranean early in the 14th century. The iron hinge system was the first stern rudder permanently attached to the ship hull and made a vital contribution to the navigation achievements of the
Age of Discovery and thereafter.
Merging of Northern European and Mediterranean maritime technology traditions The movement of the sternpost-mounted rudder from Northern European waters to the Mediterranean was part of an exchange of maritime technology between the two regions. Before this, Mediterranean ships had used more than one mast, rigged only with
lateen sails. (Square rig had disappeared from the Mediterranean after the
classical period.) Their hulls were built with
carvel construction. Northern ships were built with
clinker construction and used
square rig on a single mast.
Square rig was reintroduced to the Mediterranean from Northern waters . More than one mast was adopted in Northern Europe in the first two decades of the 15th century, with carvel ships being built in the region by the late 1430s. The result for both regions was the
full-rigged ship, which was used (in steadily developing versions) until replaced by steamships late in the 19th century.
Textile industry and garments Functional button (13th century) German buttons appeared in 13th-century Germany as an indigenous innovation. They soon became widespread with the rise of snug-fitting clothing.
Horizontal loom (11th century) Horizontal looms operated by foot-treadles were faster and more efficient.
Silk (6th century) Manufacture of silk began in Eastern Europe in the 6th century and in Western Europe in the 11th or 12th century. Silk had been imported over the
Silk Road since antiquity. The technology of "silk throwing" was mastered in Tuscany in the 13th century. The silk works used waterpower and some regard these as the first mechanized textile mills.
Spinning wheel (13th century) Brought to Europe probably from India.
Miscellaneous playing chess,
Libro de los juegos (1283)
Chess (1450) The earliest predecessors of the game originated in 6th-century AD India and spread via Persia and the Muslim world to Europe. Here the game evolved into its current form in the 15th century.
Forest glass (c. 1000) This type of glass uses
wood ash and sand as the main raw materials and is characterised by a variety of greenish-yellow colours.
Grindstones (834) Grindstones are a rough stone, usually sandstone, used to sharpen iron. The first rotary grindstone (turned with a leveraged handle) occurs in the
Utrecht Psalter, illustrated between 816 and 834. According to Hägermann, the pen drawing is a copy of a late-antique manuscript. A second crank which was mounted on the other end of the axle is depicted in the
Luttrell Psalter from around 1340.
Liquor (12th century) Primitive forms of distillation were known to the
Babylonians, as well as Indians in the first centuries AD. Early evidence of distillation also comes from
alchemists working in
Alexandria,
Roman Egypt, in the 1st century. The
medieval Arabs adopted the distillation process, which later spread to Europe. Texts on the distillation of waters, wine, and other spirits were written in
Salerno and
Cologne in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Magnets (12th century) Magnets were first referenced in the ''
Roman d'Enéas'', composed between 1155 and 1160.
Mirrors (1180) The first mention of a "glass" mirror is in 1180 by
Alexander Neckham who said "Take away the lead which is behind the
glass and there will be no image of the one looking in."
Illustrated surgical atlas (1345) Guido da Vigevano (c. 1280 − 1349) was the first author to add illustrations to his anatomical descriptions. His
Anathomia provides
pictures of
neuroanatomical structures and techniques such as the dissection of the head by means of
trephination, and depictions of the
meninges,
cerebrum, and
spinal cord.
Quarantine (1377) Initially a 40-day-period, the quarantine was introduced by the
Republic of Ragusa as a measure of disease prevention related to the
Black Death. It was later adopted by Venice from where the practice spread all around in Europe.
Rat traps (1170s) The first mention of a rat trap is in the medieval romance
Yvain, the Knight of the Lion by
Chrétien de Troyes. == Military technologies ==