ANCIENT GREECE

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ANCIENT GREECE

• Written history begins c.900BC
• Greece built on the knowledge of earlier
  civilizations, but carried ideas and science to
  entirely new levels
• Ancient Greece serves as a model for later
  civilizations in a way that other early
  civilizations dont not only in
  science/engineering, but also philosophy and
  politics.
• Not a country but rather a collection of polis
  (city-states) with a common language, history,
  and dislike/distrust of one another. Polis exist
  in state of more-or-less continuous warfare.

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Map of ANCIENT GREECE
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ANCIENT GREECE cont

• Greek merchants from various polis establish
  colonies in surrounding countries Italy, Egypt,
  France, South Russia, India, etc. (c.750BC)
• Colonies bring materials/knowledge to Greece, and
  also spread Greek culture to rest of world
  through establishment of gymnasiums, etc.
• In some cases (e.g. Athens), the colonies become
  mini-empires
• Knowledge application disparagement of
  labour/application meant that knowledge (while
  applied to a certain extent) was not applied on
  the scale of the Egyptians, Chinese, or Romans.

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ANCIENT GREECE KNOWLEDGE/TECHNOLOGY cont

• First use of letters (rather than pictograms)
• Extensive creation of libraries
• Major contributions to knowledgephilosophy
  (e.g. Socrates), political thought (e.g.
  Pericles), literature (e.g. Sophocles), art (e.g.
  Polykleitos), science (e.g. Democritus),
  engineering (e.g. Thales), and mathematics (e.g.
  Pythagoras)
• Practical engineering includesartificial
  harbours, tunnels, mines, ships, roads,
  weaponry/fortifications, and large buildings such
  as the Parthenon (which used iron beams)

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THE PARTHENON(built 447BC?423BC)
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ANCIENT GREECE cont2

• Disunity among the polis made them vulnerable to
  attack by other (more organized) countries
• 338BC Conquest/unification of Greece by
  Alexander the Great (Greek educated Macedonian)
  who forms an empire which includes Greece,
  Persia, Egypt, etc. to the borders of India.
• Foundation of Alexandria which become a highly
  cosmopolitan enclave for Greeks (and Jews) in
  Egypt and the centre of learning, science, and
  engineering. The Library (Research Institute) of
  Alexandria became the repository for all Greek
  knowledge.

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ANCIENT GREECE cont3

• The Alexandrian Period (323BC-31BC) includes
• Archimedes of Syracuse screw, buoyancy, pumps,
  war mirror, theory of levers, force
  parallelograms, calculation of p.
• Ctesibius of Alexandria force pump, hydraulic
  organ/keyboard, metal springs, water clock.
• Hero mathematics, surveying, siphons,
  pneumatics, aerophile.
• Philon of Byzantium automata, waterwheels,
  catapult design, psychological warfare
• Euclid of Alexandria geometry

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ANCIENT GREECE cont4
Left Force pump, Right Archimedes screw
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ANCIENT GREECE cont5

• Decline of Athens (as described by Alexandrian
  historian) the rich citizens were obliged to
  bind together to meet the crushing charges that
  taxation imposed. The poorer classes expected
  the state to provide for them, and the level of
  public morality declined.
• Greece conquered and becomes a Roman province
  146BC

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ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM

• c. 87BC
• Analogue computer to calculate the astronomical
  position of the sun and moon for any given date
• Ultimate ancestor to all clocks

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REVIEW OF KEY POINTS

• Following the Paleolithic period, the Neolithic
  period ushered in a revolution in
  engineering/technology that led to the foundation
  of the first cities/civilizations.
• Engineering/Technology in early bronze iron age
  civilizations allowed a population explosion
  which led to the development of written scripts,
  mathematics, and libraries
• Engineering/Technology also led to war murder
  on a previously unimaginable level, and
  widespread devastation of the environment
  (particularly in terms of desertification)
• Ancient Greece was an important forerunner of
  modern Western Civilization in terms of
  philosophy, political thought, literature, art,
  science, engineering, and mathematics