ABSTRACT
The invention of the crane is among the most remarkable Greek contributions to the history of construction. While it is believed that crane technology spread in Greece in the late sixth century BC, grooves observed on the first stone blocks of Greek architecture, which are those of the early temples at Corinth and Isthmia, suggest that the crane might have been experimented with as early as the mid-seventh century BC. This view has been criticized on practical grounds. Based on re-examination of the finds and experimental tests, this paper demonstrates that a lifting machine was most plausibly used with the blocks of the two temples. This view does not clash with the idea that fully developed cranes only became common much later: indeed, forerunners of the crane without winches or hoists seem to have been used in Greece since 900 BC and in Egypt as early as the Bronze Age.
