Technologies on the Road between West and East

It is a century-long commonplace in historiography that Christianization played a significant role in spreading technological innovations during the Middle Ages. More effective use of non-human power must rank among the most important of these innovations. Making more use of animal power was facilitated by the spread of the breast harness for draft animals and water mills proved a more effective way of grinding grain than the usual hand mills of the time. Research dating back to the basic handbook by Richard Bennett and John Elton from the turn of the twentieth century attributes the spread of mills in the high medieval period to the activity of monastic orders, primarily the Benedictines, in various regions of Europe. ¹ This thesis was partly supported by the results of two essential studies published in the mid-1930s by Lewis Mumford and Marc Bloch. ² They both believed that after the Roman period in most parts of Europe the re-introduction of water mills was primarily connected to monastic orders. Adam Lucas, however, recently drew attention to the different narratives of the two historians. Mumford believed that the spread of new technologies was intended to create better time management for the peasantry, but Bloch thought that it rather served to increase incomes from peasantry belonging to ecclesiastical domains. ³