It would be easy to discuss many of the ancient Greeks inventions that took
place which were associated with warfare. Almost everybody is aware of the fact
that Alexander the Great and his conquests were some of the most renowned
throughout all history. In just a short period of time, he and his army overtook
most of the then known world and if his life would not have been cut short, he
would have continued his conquests. There were, no doubt, many ancient Greek
inventions which helped to make his conquests successful. The one invention that
I will discuss, however, is the canon.
It is
thought that they were one of the first to use a Canon although it did
not
use gunpowder. By using compressed air, these
canons were able to hurl a
projectile over long distances.
One
well-known ancient Greek invention is the Antikythera mechanism. Believe
it
or not, this was a type of calculator that is
thought to have been invented some
2000 years
ago. As a matter of fact, many people consider this to be the world's
first computer,
although it was nothing
like the computers that we see today. Through the use of a complex system of
gears, it was able to calculate the relative positions of the sun, moon and
stars whenever a date was entered. This is one of the ancient Greeks inventions
that was truly far ahead of its time.
The ancient Greeks were also well known for their work that took place under
water. Aristotle first described this type of contraption some 2400 years ago.
It is thought that this is one of the ancient Greeks inventions that was used in
order to salvage the floor of the ocean for various items. It is unknown what
other applications this ancient Greek invention had but it was ingenious that
they were able to come up with the concept.
Another one
of the ancient Greek inventions that is rather interesting is that
of
the shower. Although nothing was known about germs at that particular
time,
the Greeks thought that it was a healthful
practice to wash the body with water.
The fact
that there were showers during this time period is recorded in various
art
murals that have been excavated
.
It is hard to know what other ancient Greeks inventions were in existence
during that time. One thing's for certain, they were a society that was rather
enlightened and well ahead of their time. Perhaps with some more archaeology
work on our part, we may be able to discover that they were behind some other
ingenious ideas as well.