The Top Ten Inventions of Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece can be credited with many inventions and discoveries, although many of these have
been developed and adapted by subsequent generations.
The ancient Greeks’ breakthrough explorations in the areas of astronomy, geography, architecture
and mathematics made them pioneers in the field of science.
The Greeks’ interest in the scientific specification and engineering implementation of the physical
world can be seen as far back as the sixth century BCE.
Remarkable leaders like Pythagoras, Aristotle, Ctesibius of Alexandria and Archimedes, and
their innovative and philosophical ideas have motivated thousands of other intellectuals
throughout history.
Here is a list of the top 10 inventions of ancient Greece that are still important today:
10 Historiography
Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an
academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject.
The earliest chronologies date back to Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, in the form of chronicles
and annals.
By contrast, the term "historiography" is taken to refer to written history recorded
in a narrative format for the purpose of informing future generations about events.
In this limited sense, "history" begins with the early historiography of Classical Antiquity,
in about the 5th century BCE, with Herodotus, the father of history.
The Roman statesman Cato the Elder produced the first history in Latin, the Origines,
in the 2nd century BCE.
His near contemporaries Sima Tan and Sima Qian in the Han Empire of China established
Chinese historiography with the compiling of the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian).
During the Middle Ages, medieval historiography included the works of chronicles in medieval
Europe, Islamic histories by Muslim historians, and the Korean and Japanese historical writings
based on the existing Chinese model.
During the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, historiography in the Western world was shaped
and developed by figures such as Voltaire, David Hume, and Edward Gibbon, who among others
set the foundations for the modern discipline.
Certainly, without Herodotus, you would not be checking out this very list today!
9 Pneumatics
Pneumatics is the field of study and implementation relating to how air pressure powers and moves
something.
Essentially, pneumatics puts compressed air to practical use by moving applications like
the tools and machinery used in the engineering, manufacturing and construction industries.
The origins of pneumatics can be traced back to the first century when the ancient Greek,
Hero of Alexandria wrote about his inventions powered by steam or the wind.
Ctesibius of Alexandria also made use of pneumatics in his work on the earliest piston pump and
an air-powered cannon.
In combination with his work on the elasticity of air, “On pneumatics”, earned him the
title of "father of pneumatics."
Unfortunately, none of Ctesibius’s written work has survived, including his Memorabilia,
a compilation of his research that was cited by Athenaeus.
Ctesibius' most commonly known pneumatic invention today is a pipe organ (hydraulis), a predecessor
of the modern church organ.
8 Cement
A cement is a binder, a substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres
to other materials to bind them together.
Chemically speaking, cement is a product that includes lime as the primary binding ingredient.
Lime (calcium oxide) was used on Crete and by the ancient Greeks.
There is evidence that the Minoans of Crete used crushed pots or sherds as an artificial
pozzolan for hydraulic cement.
Nobody knows who first discovered that a combination of hydrated non-hydraulic lime and a pozzolan
produces a hydraulic mixture, but such concrete was used by the Ancient Macedonians, and three
centuries later on a large scale by Roman engineers.
7 Watermill
Prior to the age of steam and industrialisation, the watermill was one of the primary sources
of power in society.
This useful invention takes its origins from the earliest known Perachora wheel, created
way back in the third century BCE in Greece.
Scholars postulate that it was most likely invented by the Greek engineer Philo of Byzantium.
Previously, the portions of the mechanical treatise on this particular water mill written
by Philo himself were regarded to have Arab origination.
However, recent research by British historian M.J.T.
Lewis has proved that the water mill was an ancient Greek invention.
Water mills were a revolutionary invention and have been used all over the world for
the purpose of metal shaping, agriculture and, most importantly, milling.
Milling alone led to the availability of edible food staples like rice, cereals, pulses, flour,
and so on.
Ever since the invention of the watermill, a number of adaptations have enabled people
to use the invention for various purposes.
6 Laboratory Science
The earliest systematic laboratory science according to the present evidence is a home
laboratory of Pythagoras of Samos, the well-known Greek philosopher and scientist.
This laboratory was created when Pythagoras conducted an experiment about tones of sound
and vibration of string.
It would only be fair to say that, given the evidence, the ancient Greeks made some outstanding
contributions in various branches of science including biology, and physics.
Many ancient Greek intellectuals excelled in mathematics, physics, and astronomy.
Aristotle introduced the idea of the earth as a globe.
He also classified animals and is often referred to as the father of zoology.
Theophrastus was the first botanist that we know of in written history.
The Pythagoreans not only made the earliest advances in philosophy and geometry, but they
also proposed the heliocentric hypothesis of the earth revolving around the sun and
not the other way around as was believed at that time.Archimedes discovered that submerging
a solid object in water would displace the same amount of liquid as the object’s volume.
The Greeks had so much influence in the early concepts of science that most symbols used
in physics and mathematical equations are derived from the Greek alphabet.
5 Cartography
Cartography is the study and practice of making maps.
It has played an important role in travel and navigation since ancient times.
Even though the earliest known evidence of cartography points towards ancient Babylon
as early as the ninth century BC, the Greeks took what they had at their disposal and brought
cartography into a new light.
Anaximander was one of the first pioneer cartographers to create a map of the world.
Born between 611 and 610 BC, he made important contributions to the science of astronomy
and geography.
Anaximander is mentioned in Aristotle’s work, who categorised him as a pupil of the
physical school of thought, propounded by Thales.
Anaximander included all inhabited areas of the world in his map.
The map appeared in tablet form and featured Ionia in the centre.
It was bounded on the east by the Caspian Sea and stretched to the Pillars of Hercules
in the west.
Middle Europe borders the map in the north while Ethiopia and the Nile feature at the
southern end.
Anaximander made immense contributions in the fields of cartography and geography and
his map of the world was indeed a marvellous achievement of that time.
4 Medicine
The ancient world did not fare too well when it came to the curing of disease.
Back then, diseases were supposed to be the gods’ way of punishing humans and all possible
remedies were surrounded by superstition.
That all changed when Hippocrates of Cos started to collect data and conduct experiments to
show that disease was a natural process; that the signs and symptoms of a disease were caused
by the natural reactions of the body to the disease process.
Born in 460 BCE, Hippocrates was an ancient Greek physician of the Classical age and was
considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine.
He was referred to as the father of Western medicine in recognition of his lasting contributions
to the field and was the founder of the Hippocratic School of Medicine.
The most famous of his contributions is the Hippocratic Oath, which bears his name.
It was this document that first proposed an ethical standard among doctors.
It covers many important concepts which are still used today such as doctor–patient
confidentiality.
3 Philosophy
The Socratic method – A form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals,
based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out
ideas and underlying presuppositions.
It is named after the Classical Greek philosopher Socrates and is introduced by him in Plato's
Theaetetus.
Before the age of ancient Greece, the world did not see philosophy as we see it today.
It was more shrouded in superstition and magic than it ever would be.
For instance, the Egyptians believed that if the Nile rose and flooded, making the soil
dark and fertile, their pharaoh had commanded it.
But the Greeks approached philosophy from a different direction.
They developed philosophy as a way of understanding the world around them, without resorting to
religion, myth, or magic.
In fact the early Greek philosophers were also scientists who observed and studied the
known world, the earth, seas, mountains, solar system, planetary motion, and astral phenomena.
Their philosophy, based on reasoning and observation of the known world, played a pivotal role
in the shaping of the Western philosophical tradition.
Philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were such influential philosophers that their
studies were used to teach subsequent ages of Romans and other Western cultures.
2 Geometry
Geometry is doubtless one of the oldest branches of mathematics, possibly older than arithmetic
itself.
And its practical necessity demanded the use of various geometric techniques way before
any of these were recorded in history.
The Egyptians, Babylonians, and the Indus were among the first to incorporate and use
many such techniques but they never worked out the rules and axioms governing geometry.
The Babylonians assumed value of Pi to be 3 and never challenged its accuracy.
Then came the age of Greek geometry and everything changed.
The Greeks insisted that geometric facts must be established by deductive reasoning, much
as it is done today.
Thales of Miletus, regarded as the father of geometry, proposed a number of axioms and
rules that were truly based on reasoning (called mathematical truths) in the sixth century
BC.
Then came the likes of Pythagoras, Euclid, and Archimedes whose geometrical axioms and
rules are still taught in schools today.
There were many more Greek mathematicians and geometers who contributed to the history
of geometry, but these names are the true giants, the ones who developed geometry as
we know it today.
1 Democracy
The idea of every citizen having equal opportunity and a say in government constitutes the concept
of democracy.
It is one of the most widely used styles of governance in the modern world.
And even more fascinating is the fact that democracy also had its origins in ancient
Greece.
In fact, the concept and the implementation of democracy or demokratia, can be traced
back from the present day to ancient Athens.
Although there is evidence that democratic forms of government, in a broad sense, may
have existed in several areas of the world well before the turn of the fifth century,
it is generally believed that the concepts of democracy and the constitution were created
in one particular place and time – in ancient Athens around 508 BCE.
For this reason, Athens is regarded as the birthplace of democracy.
This transition from exploitation by the aristocracy to a political system where all members of
society have an equal share of formal political power had a significant impact on future civilizations.
What did you think of our list of the top ten inventions of ancient Greece?
The steam engine nearly made the list, but as the invention did not develop to a point
of much utility in its contemporary period, we chose not to include it.
Archimedes is credited with inventing the first steam-powered device; however, Hero
of Alexandria designed the Aeolipile.
The aeolipile was a simple bladeless radial steam turbine which spins when the central
water container is heated.
Hero of Alexandria first described the aeolipile in the 1st century AD and many sources give
him the credit for its invention.
We had also considered including that most perfect dessert--cheesecake as well.
The earliest mention of a cheesecake is by the Greek physician Aegimus who wrote a book
on the art of making cheesecakes.
A worthy invention, deserving an honourable mention indeed!
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