Basic history of the Surveyor

1. THE PRESTIGE OF THE
SURVEYOR
AN ANCIENT AND NOBLE PROFESSION

2. I’M A MILLENNIAL, AND MORE THAN JUST A WAGE,
MAN
Cool. Nobody wants to be a slave to the dollar.
You want a career. But not just any old career.
You want a title that provides a hint of pride from the folks,
and a hint of envy from your rivals.
Something with a bit of history, and Gravitas.

3. HISTORY? PRESTIGE? GRAVITAS?
Gravitas. The humble, respected surveyor is one of the oldest recorded professions
in history.
First relied on for irrigation and crop growth of the River Nile, Egypt, seven
thousand years ago. (De Fayo, Mays et al. 2011) then again in the construction of the
Pryamids. Boasting high precision with ancient tools. (Kreisle 1988)
Nothing like being responsible for a wonder of the world.

4. THEN WHAT HAPPENED?
Surveying evolved through the ages.
Mathematics told the world how it should be. Cartography improved, celestial
navigation, astronomy. All the while Folk needed borders drawn, distances
measured. Areas traversed.
The Ancient Greeks built grand projects. Amongst them a tunnel over a kilometre
long. Dug end to end, which met in the middle, with errors less than 1:1000 - in
500B.C (Husband 2016)
The romans, with the help of their Gromatici & Agrimensores Used surveying for
civil, and Military works From aqueducts to grand strategy (De Feo, Mays et al. 2011)
Then, the renaissance. The telescope. The planar table.

5. WOW. THAT’S A HISTORY.
Sure is.
And as a surveyor, you stand on the shoulders of giants. Of inventors, of brave souls
headed across an ocean that theoretically should have an end.
But your tools will be Total stations, drones and Satellites. Imaging and modelling
software. Virtual and Augmented reality. (Tops 2019)
Just imagine what’s to come.

6. RESOURCES
• De Feo, G., et al. (2011). 4.01 - Water and Wastewater Management Technologies
in the Ancient Greek and Roman Civilizations. Treatise on Water Science. P.
Wilderer. Oxford, Elsevier: 3-22.
• Husband, C. M. (2016). Technology of the Ancients: An Overview, Lulu. com.
• Kreisle, W. E. (1988). "HISTORY OF ENGINEERING SURVEYING." Journal of
Surveying Engineering 114(3): 102-124.
• Tops The future of surveying technology (2020) Visited 15th April
www.takeoffpros.com/2019/12/23/future-of-surveying-technology/