Technology in Ancient
Civilizations:
the Greek
the Greek
The Minoan Civilization grew up
on the island of Crete pre-dated the Greek. In 2600 BC people on Crete were
working with bronze and gold. 2000 BC they developed system of writing. And by
1700 – 1450 BC they reached their height and dominated Aegan area. They were
seafaring traders, exporting wines, honey and olive oil in Egypt, Asia Minor
and Syria. They built magnificent palace at Knossos a small city. By 1450 BC
the civilization declined due to earthquake and volcanic that from mainland
invaded Crete. The Mycenaean Civilization took it’s place and were the first
reminiscent of The Ancient Greek[1] which were
surely one of the most influential civilizations in history. Hellenistic
civilization spread towards the Middle East with the conquests of Alexander the
Great over the Middle East and far into Asia after his death in 323 BC. All in
all, the Greek spread from 1700 - 300 BC. They were a seafaring people: they
traded with other countries around the Mediterranean. Their cities were founded
around the Black Sea, North Africa, Italy, France and Spain. Architecture,
philosophy, literature, you name it!!! Poets, Mathematician,
Architects, and Philosophers founded a culture that we are still identified
with. Ancient Greek philosophy focused on the role of reason and inquiry, and
had great implicancies on modern philosophy. The main influencers were Plato
and Socrates. They introduced us to many ideas like democracy. The Greek lived
in city states, which consisted of a city and it’s surrounding area. These
featured some sort of slavery and citizenship was limited to males.
Consider our picture of the
Greek: the philosophers. However, in the city of Athens, between 40% and 80% of
the population were slaves. Not everyone in Greece could enjoy a life of
freedom and full-right citizen, this being more the exception than the norm.
Only free, land owning, native-born men could be citizens and were entitled to
the full protection of the law. The slaves[2] or
duolia were mainly used to work in agriculture or in mines, and were paid for
their services. They were not allowed to participate in politics, this being a
privilege reserved to the citizens. Education was wide spread, and Greek was a
widespread language. Homer wove ancient tales of gods and heroes into epic
poetry. Some of his work included the Iliad and Odyssey. The Acropolis was in
ancient times the political and religious center of the city. It was where
philosophy was debated, and government conducted. Religion occupied a central
role in Greek tradition. They prayed to the twelve Olympians, Zeus being their
God.
The Greek were the most advanced
preindustrial economies in the world. The most common jobs were politicians,
generals, secretaries, clerks, accountants, blacksmiths, scientists,
carpenters, masons, metalsmiths and shipbuilders. Transportation was carried on
by ship and mule. They handled perfumes, copper, ivory, gold, carpet, olive
oil, silver, tin, slaves, timber and fish. Large-Scale Farming was not
possible. There were city-states because the land was divided by mountains.
Greece was not yet unified as a country. Since they were surrounded by water,
they created a large naval force. There were many fisherman and they could
trade easier with other countries because they were close to the sea.
Their technology was very
developed. They were brilliant astronomers, and had discovered that the Earth
was round. They used hand-held plows fitted with iron blades, they were pulled
by oxen or mules. They used hydraulic cylinders, pumps, machine tools, gears
and even some bases of computer sciences: the letters of their messages could
be coded in two bits. They loved art, beauty, music theater and poetry. They
studied the physical laws that govern music, investigating around and studying
harmony. Let us see some example of their technological advances[3]:
- Robots: Philo built an automation
where birds were singing near an owl, but stopped as soon as the owl
periodically turned to them. A robot-servant poured wine first, then
water, and stopped when you withdrew your cup. The first vending machine
gave the visitor a measure of holy water when he inserted a coin.
- Entertainment: automatic theaters
were created, with self-opening doors. Stage machinery added special
effects like the descent of characters from the sky, scenery changes and
movable carts.
- Musical instruments: music was a
major art. They had organs, wind, string and percussion instruments.
Pythagoras and Ptolemy defined the rules of musical harmony, scales and
pitches.
- Technology in everyday life: they
used different types of cranes, pulleys, winches and capstan hoists, block
and tackle systems. They had water mills but also used a special type with
an horizontal turbine, suited for fast flows of small rivers. As weapons,
they invented siege engines throwing arrows (catapults) and balls. The
repeater crossbow was the first machine gun! The designed a steam canon,
and their siege towers were 9 floors tall. Their heavy merchant ships were
turned into fine and fast galleys. To measure time, they devised small
portable sundials which could work under 4 different latitudes, or the
water clock, which worked as well as an alarm clock.
- Technology applied to science:
problems were solved by using rulers and compasses, but when this did not
work they built devices to seek solutions. The “Antikythera Mechanism” was
the first astronomical analog computer in the world. Astronomical
observation instruments were created to record the precise position of the
stars. The circumference of the Earth was calculated by Eratosthenes with
less than 2% error of margin. Hipparchus discovered that the Sun was much
larger than the Earth. However, they believed that the planets and the Sun
orbited around the Earth, and not the opposite. This was only challenged
1500 years later.
They also built great aqueducts,
like the Tunnel of Eupalinos[4]. And
Hippocrates[5]
is considered the Father of Western Medicine. Ancient Greece can be considered
the birth place of Western Civilization. For over 1000 years the Greek devised
the most advanced technological feats the world had ever seen. They were also
prone to war and conquest. They were thinkers, creators, innovators. In the
end, they would be absorbed by the Roman Empire, who built and thrive upon
Greek culture. They took their architectural design and creations and built
upon them. We will get to that later.
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