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!                 

Textile Terrassa, textile Greece

The Greeks were aware that technology must be in all the sectors. It explains the evolution of textile technology. In Terrassa (Barcelona, Spain), textile has been a motor of evolution.

About raw materials, leather was one of the most worked materials in Ancient Greece, both in the primary tanning industry and in the manufacture of manufactured goods such as footwear, which used to have a leather sole, hats or fans.

However, the fabric manufacturing was based on the simple darning process, whereby a series of threads with the weft name crossed at right angles with another series of threads called warp. On the Greek loom the warp was hung on a horizontal pole mounted on two wooden supports that were fixed directly to the ceiling, or through a horizontal pole. The dyeing and hardening of the fabrics was especially unhealthy, since toxic substances such as purple and indigo were used. Nevertheless, the work was done manually.

From the Greek textile era till now, when it is essential for sports, the evolution has been relatively fast. However, we can’t understand the actual stage of textile sector without the Greek improvements.

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

The nice Sicily

Sicily is like a magnet. Already in the eighteenth century, European aristocrats considered the cherry tree of the grand tour, with the confluence of the Azure coast and the ubiquitous mountain (Palermo, Tràpani, Nebrodi, Madonia and Peloritani mountains). The 3,323 meters of the Etna volcano impose.

They still resembled the effluvium of the Kingdom of Sicily, when the island was independent, as in the Greek era, that of Magna Grecia and Siracusa, the most beautiful of Greece, according to Cicero. However, Roma, the Vandals, the Byzantines, the Saracens, the Hohenstaufen, the Catalan-Aragonese and the Spaniards regularly controlled the island, eminently agrarian and with the Mafia as the underlying factor. The wars between Sparta and Athens, the Carthaginian incursions, the first Punic War, the Second Punic War and the conversion into the Roman province (the barn of Rome, for the spoils suffered) wander through a battle landscape similar to that of the slow football matches.

The attractions of Sicily make it a privileged place for tourism, which increasingly uses digital tools, thanks to the poetic landscape and archaeological sites such as Morgantina, the Valley of the Temples or Selinunte. Hostels proliferate on the island. Names such as Agrigento, Caltagirone, Cefalù, Piazza Armerina (Roman villa of Casale) Siracusa or Taormina synthesize the culture of the island. Churches and natural spaces make it attractive. Curious island evolution, like technological evolution, analyzed by XXV Cable and Broadband Catalonia Congress (CECABLE, Auditorium Blanquerna in Barcelona, ​​31 March-1 April 2020). Come in!                                                                                                        

Sicília, un imant turístic

Turísticament Sicília és un imant. Ja el segle XVIII els aristòcrates europeus la consideraven la cirereta del grand tour, amb l’aiguabarreig de la costa atzur i la muntanya omnipresent (Palerm, muntanyes de Tràpani, Nebrodi, Madonia i Peloritani). Els 3.323 metres del volcà Etna imposen.

Ressonen encara els efluvis del Regne de Sicília, quan l’illa era independent, com en l’època dels grecs, la de la Magna Grècia i Siracusa, la més bonica de Grècia, segons Ciceró. Tanmateix, Roma, els vàndals, els bizantins, els sarraïns, els Hohenstaufen, els catalanoaragonesos i els espanyols van controlar, periòdicament, l’illa, eminentment agrària i amb la màfia com a factor subjacent. Les guerres entre Esparta i Atenes, les incursions cartagineses, la primera Guerra Púnica, la segona Guerra Púnica i la conversió en província romana (el graner de Roma, pels espolis soferts) solquen un paisatge de lluita similar a la dels abrandats partits de futbol.

Els atractius de Sicília la converteixen en privilegiada de cara al turisme, que cada cop més utilitza eines digitals, gràcies al poètic paisatge i a jaciments arqueològics com Morgantina, la vall dels Temples o Selinunte. Els albergs proliferen a l'illa. Noms com Agrigent, Caltagirone, Cefalù, Piazza Armerina (vil·la romana del Casale) Siracusa o Taormina sintetitzen la cultura de l’illa. Esglésies i espais naturals l’esquitxen d’atractiu. Un veritable imant turístic!

Bon Sant Jordi!

Llegiu molt! 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!