traditionally, arnold toynbee and nikolai kondratieff have held that the industrial revolution began between 1776 and 1780, around the time of the invention of james watt’s atmospheric steam engine. this revolution, supposedly arose suddenly, as a spontaneous ‘big bang’ event that created the industrial revolution, akin to a virgin birth without precedence. there is an important historical reason for systematically tracing the historic roots of the 18th-century industrial revolution back to its potential origins in hellenistic period. and by that, i mean not linking its roots to antiquity with the toynbee’s industrial revolution of the 18th-century, one cannot identify those events occurring during this 2000-year long link that would have prevented it from starting up (again) in 1690.