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Science Technology

Ramps For Disabled People Trace Back To Ancient Greece (sciencemag.org) 50

Posted by BeauHD from the history-lessons dept.
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: The ramps for disabled people that smooth entry into many public buildings today aren't a modern invention. The ancient Greeks constructed similar ramps of stone to help individuals who had trouble walking or climbing stairs access holy sites, new research suggests. That would make the ramps -- some more than 2300 years old -- the oldest known evidence of architecture designed to meet the needs of the disabled.

Archaeologist Debby Sneed focused on the fourth century B.C.E., when sanctuaries to Asclepius -- the Greek god of healing -- proliferated. She found that the two best documented healing sanctuaries she looked at were outfitted with more ramps than other sacred sites, and that their ramps were more likely to access buildings other than the main temple. At Asclepius's main sanctuary at Epidaurus, near Athens, for example, a broad stone ramp led up to the temple. Two more ramps led through the sanctuary gates. And a series of smaller side buildings also feature narrow ramps just wide enough to walk up, Sneed reports today in Antiquity. High stairs would be hard for people using crutches. And though wheelchairs wouldn't be invented for more than 1,000 years, visitors to healing shrines who couldn't walk sometimes had to be carried on litters or stretchers -- both easier to navigate up a ramp.
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Ramps For Disabled People Trace Back To Ancient Greece More

Ramps For Disabled People Trace Back To Ancient Greece

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  • From the article: Katja Sporn, head of the German Archaeological Institute’s Athens department and the author of a paper examining temple ramps in the Greek world, notes that ramps are found predominantly in the Peloponnese, the heartland of ancient Greece. To her, that raises the possibility they were a regional and relatively short-lived architectural trend. At most, ramps were multipurpose conveniences, she argues. “It helps everyone, also disabled people, walk into temples better,” Spo

    • Moving a bunch of 3,000 pound stones (Score:5, Insightful)

      by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Tuesday July 21, 2020 @10:15PM (#60317477) Journal

      The building is assembled of great number of stones, each around 3,000 pounds or so.

      I don't know about anyone else, but if I have a few hundred stones to move into place and I have a choice between:

      A. Have horses pull them up a ramp
      B. I carry them up stairs

      I'm picking A. I'm gonna use ramps.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gl4ss ( 559668 )

        Yeah I came to say pretty much just this same thing.
        they had ramps for building the pyramids too and ramps to wheel stuff into the pyramids.

        there's ramps at a lot of places for other reasons than for the disabled in the modern world too.

      • You can make ramps from packed dirt during construction and dig them away when you are finished. We still do that today because bulldozers can't drive up stairs without destroying them.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by mrgren ( 630298 )
        If a ramp is needed for construction purposes only, then make an earth ramp (with wood skids etc) and remove it once it's no longer needed. See the excellent 1930 book Ancient Egyptian Construction and Architecture by Somers Clarke and R. Engelbach (Dover Books has a reprint). I've read it twice and would give it 10 out of 10.
    • Yeah, I can buy that ramps at healing sites may have been for disabled people, but it seems more likely that ramps at temples might have been for bringing up sacrifices, especially because the example given at Epidaurus had a broad ramp. Similarly, a ramp for the disabled today is typically a secondary (and often smaller) point of access because it is seen as an addition specifically for the disabled. If we build a broad ramp in lieu of stairs, who says, "That's a ramp for the disabled"? It's more likely th
    • Ayup - the Greeks also sometimes (about once a year) wheeled the god statues out of the temples for a party outside. I can't image pushing a large statue down a flight of stairs and still have it in one piece.

  • And before. It's a ramp, not some fancy complicated invention. Someone made one because there was a need for it.

    The ancient Greeks used sticks as levers too. And rocks to weigh stuff down so it doesn’t blow away. And hollow containers to store liquids. Etc.

    Captain Obvious history lesson complete.

    • Just because there's a need for it doesn't mean it will be conceived and invented. I am sure they needed an iPhone too, but didn't invent one of those.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kohath ( 38547 )

        A ramp is not an invention.

        • I can see the ancients utilizing natural ramps. In fact, I would expect previous species would be able to do that. It's nothing that any decent mammal can't handle, now that I think of it. Somebody, though, had the first idea of "let's create this thing from materials that will allow us to accomplish a task; and we'll call it 'ramp'".

          Is that an invention? Here's one definition...

          "A new device, method, or process developed from study and experimentation"

          ...so I might argue that it is an invention.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ledow ( 319597 )

      The Egyptians used ramps to build the pyramids.

      What kind of fool would try to pull a huge object up anything but a smooth ramp?

  • Many possible reasons (Score:3, Interesting)

    by codeButcher ( 223668 ) on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @01:27AM (#60317765)
    I know the Bible is unfasionable these days and history has to be evaluated strictly through the spectacles of modern norms, but ancient Israelite altars (admittedly not temples) were built without steps (with ramps, as shown by archeology) for the sake of modesty of the priests. Exodus 20:26.

    • Re:Many possible reasons (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @02:10AM (#60317837)

      Well, they sure wouldn't equip temples with ramps,because they didn't want the disabled there.

      Leviticus 21:18: For any man who has a defect shall not approach: a man blind or lame, who has a marred face or any limb too long,

      • Re:Many possible reasons (Score:4, Insightful)

        by codeButcher ( 223668 ) on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @06:57AM (#60318203)
        Yeah, your quote refers to persons from the priestly clans, as becomes clear if the whole section is read for context (or even just the preceding verse). People with a disability were barred from performing the sacrifices and other ritual services in the temple, but were still entitled to the privileges of the priestly class - eating from the temple offerings is mentioned in the chapter.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by fgouget ( 925644 )

        Well, they sure wouldn't equip temples with ramps,because they didn't want the disabled there.

        Leviticus 21:18: For any man who has a defect shall not approach: a man blind or lame, who has a marred face or any limb too long,

        From the article "She found that the two best documented healing sanctuaries she looked at were outfitted with more ramps than other sacred sites". Do your hospitals forbid access to anyone who is ill? Did you read the article?

  • Who thought ramps were a recent invention?

    The ramps for disabled people that smooth entry into many public buildings today aren't a modern invention.

    It seems likely that ramps pre-dated stairs...

    • Not surprising when you consider that natural inclines and hills are all over the damn place. Things that resemble stairs in nature exist, but aren't as prevalent. It seems as though ramps would be a natural thought to any group of people engaging in construction projects and a lot easier to construct in most environments. Stairs don't make as much sense until you start carving into stone or have enough people to trample down the grass along a common trail such that the path turns into a muddy slip-n-slide

    • Sure. Pyramids, etc. But TFA is about "ramps for disabled people" specifically.

  • Probably there was somebody high in the hierarchy who was disabled. I doubt if it was an 'initiative' like modern ramp mandates.

  • That would be the Athenians with Disabilities Act. Sorry, I don't know how that's spelled in ancient Greek.

  • Ramps aren't just for disabled... (Score:3)

    by cb88 ( 1410145 ) on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @08:26AM (#60318367)
    Ramps are also required for wagons... any large site would require deliveries likely via a wagon this a ramp is required if the site is elevated about the surrounding terrain.

    That is not to say it could not or was not used for the disabled, but it does mean the assumptions in the article are complete bunk. Unless you are in a wheelchair a ramp does not pose a significant advantage over wide stairs, if anything wide flat stair are far superior as they are both level and have a low incline.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fgouget ( 925644 )

      Ramps are also required for wagons... any large site would require deliveries likely via a wagon

      From the article: "And a series of smaller side buildings also feature narrow ramps just wide enough to walk up" (already in bold in the original article) In other words, ramps not wide enough for a wagon.

      That is not to say it could not or was not used for the disabled, but it does mean the assumptions in the article are complete bunk.

      Methinks it's your assertions that are complete bunk!

      Unless you are in a wheelchair a ramp does not pose a significant advantage over wide stairs

      Let's talk about that again when you're old and have arthritis and joint disease (see article).

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cb88 ( 1410145 )
        I didn't make any assertions other than that the assertions in the article are not fact based but just presumptions.

        If the ramp was just wide enough to walk up and it is a side building not the main affair... that would make me think wheelbarrows rather that anything for the disabled.

        As far as your last comment... wheelchairs did not exist until the late 14th century in Europe, they they far predated that in China beginning to exist somewhere between 500BC and 500 AD.

        How about using your brain cells before
  • What about masks for infected people?
  • "The way up and the way down are one and the same." -- Heraclitus

    • "The way up and the way down are one and the same." -- Heraclitus

      Absolutely. Had to do that for the five miles to school every day. In the snow, natch.

  • talking off the top of my head, without citation.

    most of these sites, as far as we know, were built in the later eras of the faiths they represent, and were run by large groups and usually powerful groups of officiates, who usually fed themselves on the sacrifices of the faithful.

    those ramps were to make it easier for the faithful to deliver sacrifices, on wheels.

    i bet you.

    • talking to myself here, probably.

      this slash makes me itch, really should read the article, however.

      this statement

      "carried on litters or stretchers -- both easier to navigate up a ramp"

      is entirely false.

      it may seem true, without experience, but just try it.

      you may get up a short ramp, carrying a heavy weight, of any kind, without much effort, but i will happily race you, even at my age, up any serious flight of stairs, compared with any equivalent ramp, your choice of slope, and we will see whose ham

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