Bon Nadal!

Des del blog Clàssiques us desitgem un bon Nadal en família i amb prudència davant la pandèmia de la COVID-19. Esperem que les anàlisis sobre el món grec i romà que anem publicant us facin més amens aquests dies. Endavant!

Bon Sant Jordi!

Llegiu, llegiu i llegiu! Des d'aquest blog us desitgem un bon Sant Jordi, liderat per lectures sobre els clàssics grecs i llatins. Això permetrà retrobar les profunditats de les nostres arrels culturals. A gaudir-ne i a llegir molt i molt!

Navigating in technology

One of the outstanding conquests of Greeks was the introduction of improvements in naval technology. The interest of the Greeks in navigation led them to build the first lighthouse in history that was realized around the year 300 B.C.

In the war background, naval technology is essential. Greece came the first use of the ship as a decisive weapon in the war, especially in the battle of Salamis against the Persians. The warship should be narrow to go faster and also propelled by oars. This warship was endowed with the necessary weapons to sink other ships, such as the bronze ram at the beginning of the 7th century B.C.

It is interesting to analyse the figure of Ameinocles. He was a builder from Corinth. He had manufactured the bireme. It was a ship with a deck that had two floors for a hundred rowers. Later, the same builder created the trireme, which would constitute the bulk of the naval forces in the war of Sicily against Carthage, in the warlike conflicts against the Persians and in the clashes between Athens and Sparta.

The main virtue of the trireme was the speed, since it had the most suitable length and shape of the hull to present the minimum resistance to the advance of water. With the trireme, the naval technique reached one of its highlights. One example of the transcendence of naval technology is Samos, Island built a large breakwater and a seawall to protect the bay.

Technological evolution is analyzed in XXV Cable and Broadband Catalonia Congress (CECABLE, Auditorium Blanquerna in Barcelona, ​​31 March-1 April 2020). Come in! 

Building technology and happy 2020!

The technological evolution in the modern world is rooted in the Greek world and in zones like Sicily. We find a lot of examples in a lot of sectors, for example architecture.

In this sense, in the fourth century B.C. wood, adobes and tiles were used for the construction of normal houses. There were small windows for ventilation that when it was cold or rain were clogged with anything. The walls of the houses were simply lined with lime and only in the richest houses were mosaics or wall paintings.

In general, the houses were built facing south, to take advantage of the sun. The furniture was made with wood, although the seats of chairs and stools were usually made with rope or with leather. The houses used to have baths made of clay, stone or brick for adults and smaller containers for children.

About the construction of temples, although the ancient Greeks already used cranes, the main problem to solve was that sometimes the marble blocks were too heavy, for example between 5 and 10 tons. To solve it, ramps with sandbags were built. In addition, as they could not be transported with cars, a very ingenious transport system was used that consisted of fixing the columns to central pivots within a round wooden structure, so that the oxen pulled it as if it were an immense roller. The handling of the blocks was facilitated by leaving a kind of projections on the outside, which were made of handles and polished once placed in place.

We can observe the use of technology was essential to improve all the mechanisms and to offer nice buildings. Technological evolution is analyzed in XXV Cable and Broadband Catalonia Congress (CECABLE, Auditorium Blanquerna in Barcelona, ​​31 March-1 April 2020). Come in and happy 2020!