Ancient Greece Technology

Technology back in time - ancient Greece technology

The cradle of civilization is also the cradle of science and technology. Although humans try to adapt to the environment by instinct, the ancient Greeks seemed to adapt more too well. Ancient Greece technology attested to the fact that there's more to living than just eating to survive. The early Greeks seemingly did not content themselves with reaping what you sow - they wanted to make daily processes simpler from which technology arose.

Ancient Greece is described as the period between 3000 - 323 BC. In between this period, the ancient people were put to test on how to survive amidst the threshold of a harsh environment. The wild became their villages. As the ancient Greeks learned to domesticate plants and animals, they began to establish settlements and used mechanisms to transport harvests from the farms to their homes, and other places.

The ancient Greeks relied on the Aegean Sea a source of their subsistence - this also exposed them to trading with other peoples. The ancient Greeks invented windmills and watermills. The need for transportation for the farm goods gave birth to chariots, wagons, wheels, and gears.

The harsh ancient life drove the early Greeks to seek other means to make life easier. Mining and metallurgy had vital roles in ancient Greece technology. The ancient Greeks innovated a "lathe" for metals. It siphoned unwanted materials from metal for better quality. This was made of marble plate. Ancient Greece technology was also able to make stainless iron my mixing it with nickel. Artifacts of this type found date back to as far as 2500-2200 BC.

One large technological breakthrough was the draining of Lake Kopaida (in the 14th century). The inventors built a canal 40-60 meters wide and made underground tunnels dug that were 18-63 meters deep. These were enjoined perpendicularly through underground canals and then led to a ditch 9 kilometers long. This quite required a huge amount of labor but this project became successful.

Weighing scales were also a product of ancient Greece technology in 560-550 BC. Their smallest unit of measurement was one seed of wheat. At the height of the Persian Wars, the ancient Greeks realized they couldn't sustain the invaders' infantry so they strengthened their naval fleet. Adapting to the ways of the wars, ancient Greece technology opened to more innovations such as war ships called the trireme.

As to how the ancient Greeks used technology, we can conclude it was to make their lives better or protect them from enemy threats. And just as we consider ourselves, in the contemporary world, modern - we owe much of our technology to the ancient Greece technology.

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