The cyclic recurrence of scientific-technological and economic development in different types of economy as an example of petroleum-based weaponry (antiquity – the Middle Ages – contemporaneity) (Part 1)

Abstract

It is considered the cyclic recurrence in development of mathematics and shipbuilding in different types of economy in connection with creation and application of petroleum-based weaponry (antiquity – the Middle Ages – contemporaneity). It is analyzed so called «fire-throwers» («iron braziers») of fleet of the ancient Rhodes merchant republic in context of discoveries by Russian archaeologists in Crimea, on Taman peninsula and in Azov seashore region the numerous ancient and medieval amphoras with petroleum, including the most early proto-Thasos amphora of 6th – 5th centuries B. C., which was studied in 2015–2016 years by method of mass-spectrometry. «Fire-throwers» of slave-owning Rhodes of 2nd century BC are compared with much more late «liquid» or «Greek fire» of feudal Byzantium of 7th – 12th centuries AD, it is proved, that this is the same weaponry. However in the EU reconstructions of the «Greek fire» such analysis doesn’t carry out. It is underlined the importance of application of agent-based simulations in reconstructions of battles of the past and role of the fundamental scientific studies in creation of new technologies