Technology in the classic Greece

In this blog we are explaining how the classical culture was introducing technology to improve. In the current Broadband Society and cloud journalism, Internet is the great articulator. Information and knowledge guide production, as evidenced by large databases and industry 4.0.

In ancient Greece technology was developed throughout the 5th century BC. It extended until the Roman period. It even lasted a few more years. The inventions of the classical Greeks are many: screw, torsional catapult, gear, rotating mills, water body, shaft press, water clock, bronze casting techniques, steam to operate some experimental machines and toys, for example.

Peculiarly, some of the inventions saw the light towards the end of the Greek era, in order to improve weapons and war tactics. In the case of the water mill, he obtained a wholesale operation on the part of the Romans. The Greeks looked in topography and mathematics. Names like Archimedes and Herod of Alexandria reflect this.

Why did the Greeks fail to develop their technology? Well, because of the despised condition of those who did this job. In fact, manual work was underestimated. In this way, a scientific application could reduce social status. It can disincentive technological innovation. A peculiar situation To see the prestigious impact of technology, I recommend attending the DMTforum-XXVI Cable and Broadband Catalonia Congress (CNMC, ​​19 May). Come in!

Sicily and the classics

For those of us who love the classical world, being able to visit the island of Sicily is a privilege. For starters, this is the largest island in the Mediterranean. The proximity of Naples and its charm, three kilometers from the Strait of Messina, the influx of the Apennines and the oregon and the splashes of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Ionian Sea enveloped Sicily with a special snowflake.

Sicily has not always been called Sicily. The Latins called it Trinacria, that is, triangular. Where does the name of Sicily come from? Well, eureka, comes from the Greeks, who called it Sikelia because the original tribe were the satellites. Sicily is like a galaxy with numerous planets in the form of polyteinic islands, such as agates, Eolias, Pelágiques, Ustica and Pantelleria.

Peculiarly, despite being an island, Sicily is the largest region in Italy. 25,711 square kilometers are not insignificant, precisely! In addition, it is the second most densely populated island in the Mare Nostrum, behind Malta (geographically within the archipelago of Sicily and politically united in 1798). Five million Sicilians are many! The capital, Palermo, is the fifth most populous in Italy; Catania is the tenth. A clear similarity with Catalonia: in Sicily, Italian and Sicilian are spoken.

The impact of the classics is very clear in Sicily, as in the Roman Villa of the Casale. Much later, Sicily acted as an independent or immixed kingdom in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and then belonged to the Spanish monarchy. The resignation of Philip V as a result of the Treaty of Utrecht closed this phase. Because the landowners and the landowners dominated the island, the Mafia arose in the eighteenth century, an organization of peasants who rebelled clandestinely against landowners. Curious island evolution, like technological evolution, analyzed by XXVI Cable and Broadband Catalonia Congress (CECABLE, 2022). Come in!

From technology in the war to other technologies

The Greeks were very advanced in military technology. It is knows the evolution in technology sector provided from military experiences.

In the Greek history we find a lot of singular chapters in which technology was decisive. For example, the world's first flamethrower was used in one of the battles of the Peloponnesian War. It was used by the army of Boeotia, belonging to the Spartan side. They built it using the trunk of a straight tree, which split into two halves, emptied and then joined to get a hollow tube. They hung a container full of bitumen and sulphur on one end and a bellows on the other. The device was placed in an armoured car, to protect itself from the enemy arrows. When approaching the rival defence it was pointed with the tube and when pressing the bellows an immense flare came out of the container, lit fire and opened a gap that allowed the assailants penetrate enemy defences.

Furthermore, another of the Greek technological innovations in the military field occurred around 390 B.C. in the time of Dionysus I. Its engineers were the first to create artefacts capable of throwing large stones of up to 45 kg, the catapults, which would become increasingly important. With these catapults, large javelins and other projectiles could be thrown over high walls, pits and battlements. Rocking mobile bridge capable of overcoming obstacles such as bristles with sharp stakes, walls and enemy redoubts.

With these examples we discover the importance of Greek culture in the military technology evolution and in technology in general terms.
Technological evolution is analyzed in XXV Cable and Broadband Catalonia Congress (CECABLE, Auditorium Blanquerna in Barcelona, 7th ​​June 2021). Come in!                

Technology rooted in the fields

The evolution in agricultural technology is interesting in the Greek culture. We are analysing in this blog impacts of technology in the Greek world, and we find exciting steps in these period.

The first one was the oil, not only used as a culinary condiment. Furthermore, it was also the fuel used to illuminate. This oil was applied to sunburn and it even had a cosmetic application in lotions and perfumes.

In a quantitative or qualitative Greek agricultural practices we have to analyse the social and economic profile of the direct producer. In the ancient Greece, there was a slave society, based on a slave mode of production.

Therefore, the analysis of agriculture departs from slaves, and their work organization, the conditions of exploitation and the tools they used. From some years ago, the analysis was focused on the importance of independent farmers, in the productive and in the political-social fields. The last objective was the development of the polish.

The base was slavery, but in the active presence of a class of free farmers. They could incorporate some slaves, but always within farms based on family labour. It differed substantially from the landowner slave farms. These peasants were owners full of their land. It was not subject to exploitation. However, it was oriented to subsistence but which in certain circumstances could produce surpluses. The technical advances favoured the improvement of results.

Technological evolution will be analyzed in XXV Cable and Broadband Catalonia Congress (CECABLE, Auditorium Blanquerna in Barcelona, ​​2021, with permission of COVID-19). Go ahead!                 

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!                                                                                                        

Una tecnologia ben grega

En aquest enfocament del blog sobre com la tecnologia pot impulsar les llengües clàssiques, o quina n’és la relació, s’escau un apunt sobre l’origen d’aquest terme tan utilitzat a la Societat de la Banda Ampla,el cloud journalism i el social journalism commerce, conceptes científics del Dr. Joan Francesc Fondevila Gascón.

El terme tecnologia és una paraula composta amb un origen grec, τεχνολογος. Aquest mot és format per les paraules techne (τεχνη, és a dir, art, tècnica o ofici) i logos (λογος, ço és, conjunt de sabers).

Així doncs, tecnologia és el conjunt de coneixements vinculats amb els oficis, procediments i tècniques artesanals o industrials que permeten fabricar objectes, aparells i sistemes i també canviar l'entorn humà per satisfer necessitats.

Heus ací el clar vincle entre tecnologia i ciències socials i humanitats, amb la voluntat de modelar l’entorn humà, de millorar el dia a dia de les persones, de col·laborar amb un món millor i més sostenible.  El mot tecnologia aplica coneixements a tècniques per realitzar algun objecte, com invents bàsics o més elaborats.

S’analitza  la qüestió al Grup de Recerca sobre Periodisme i Màrqueting Digital i Banda Ampla i al Grup de Recerca Sistemes Innovadors de Monetització del Periodisme, Màrqueting i Turisme Digital (SIMPED), del CECABLE, a Twitter (@CECABLEresearch), Google+, al grup de LinkedIn, a la pàgina de LinkedIn, al grup de Facebook, a Instagram (CECABLE), a Pinterest i en aquest blog. Es debatrà a les XXIV Jornades del Cable i la Banda Ampla a Catalunya (9-10 d’abril del 2019, Auditori Blanquerna de Barcelona).