But a new study suggests that earlier versions of the lifting machines were being used on the Greek peninsula years earlier. The evidence comes from temples at the ancient cities of Isthmia and Corinth dating from to B. The to pound blocks used to construct the temples have unusual twin grooves running along the bottoms of the stones.
Researchers have argued about the purpose of the grooves for decades. That's why architecture professor Alessandro Pierattini of the University of Notre Dame decided to take a closer look.
The study appears in the Annual of the British School at Athens. In , divers off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera discovered something that changed our view of ancient science. The Antikythera mechanism is a bronze system of 30 gears that models the cycles of the sun and moon. It is effectively the first-known analogue computer, dating back to the 1st century BC. Set in a wooden box, the internal gears would have turned dials on the outside that showed the position of the sun and moon, as well as the rising and setting of specific stars and possibly the positions of Mars and Venus, too.
Another dial could be moved to take into account leap years. Although we now know that the Babylonians discovered how to use geometry to track the course of Jupiter in around BC, the Antikythera mechanism is the earliest known device that automatically calculates astronomical phenomena. We know of no other similiar devices for several hundred more years until the 8th century AD, when mathematician Muhammed al-Fazari is said to have built the first Islamic astrolabe.
And nothing as mechanically sophisticated would appear again until the European astronomical clocks of the 14th century. Bread was big business in the Roman world. It was given out by the state as part of a dole known as the annona. This meant that it was possible for people to make substantial amounts of money as bakers. One such person was Marcus Vergilius Eurysaces , a freedman ex-slave from Rome, who was so proud of his successful baking business that he commemorated it on his tomb.
Maria Korachai January 30th, One of the first alarm clocks ever created relied on water — although not, as you might think, to splash the sleepy user into wakefulness. Water from one pot would drip out of a small hole in the bottom, slowly filling a second. This pot was cleverly equipped with a siphon, meaning that once the water reached a certain level, all of it would pour out at once into a third pot. This one had narrow openings that would create a loud whistling sound as the air inside was pushed out by the sudden inflow of water.
I would have certainly found that piece of information fascinating enough had I read it in a book, but after having seen a working replica seen up close, it is certain that I will remember it for ever.
Kotsanas has created a thoroughly impressive body of work in his efforts to study and popularize the technological prowess and ingenuity of the ancient Greeks. In total he has brought to life roughly devices that represent the cutting edge of ancient Greek technology — these are fully functional, life-sized replicas of ancient Greek innovations.
Made with the same methods and materials as the originals, many of these devices have already traveled across the globe as parts of temporary exhibitions hosted at important museums, institutions and universities. Now the Athens museum brings many of these inventions to the Greek capital. Here, one can see over devices; even today many seem cutting-edge or even futuristic. They are arranged in 24 different categories , such as Telecommunications, Steam Power, and Computation — including even Automatic Navigation and Robotics.
0コメント