11 Things The Ancient Greeks Did Better Than The Modern High-Tech World

Today's a special day for me, or to be more accurate, it's a special day for my writing career, as I would personally prefer to be healthy, wealthy and drink cocktails in an exotic island somewhere. Oh well, maybe one day soon!

See, an article I was working on for several weeks was published by History Collection last night. In case I didn't mention that before, these guys liked my two previous articles so much that they hired me as a staff writer! They paid better than my previous job, so you know how these things go. 

Back to the most recent article I wrote for them though, you probably wonder what is it about, huh? The title of the post says it all really: My ancient Greek ancestors were just so freaking cool!!! 

SO COOL AND CREATIVE! No lie!!!

Source

The article's near 5,000 words, so there's no way in hell I will post the whole thing here. I will tell you what I can do though. I will give you a sneak peek and you can go read the rest at the website. 

It has reached 678,923 views in less than 24 hours, so let's give it a boost and help it reach 1 million views so I can get a fat bonus by them. Pleaseeeeeee ;) 

So, are you ready to embrace the ancient Greek genius and awesomeness? Let's get ready to rumble then!!!

Central Heating Didn’t Cost a Thing in Ancient Greece 

A few years ago, Russian president Putin bluffed that he would cut off Europe’s gas and the European leaders almost fell to their knees out of fear, ready to beg so they would not freeze to death during the winter. The ancient Greeks, however, would just give the middle finger to anyone who would make such a threat since their heating wasn’t based on gas, oil, or electricity and most importantly didn’t cost them anything. 

Source

Before the Romans came up with the hypocaust system, the Greeks, specifically the Minoans, first placed pipes under the floors in their homes through which they passed warm water to keep the rooms and floors warm in the winter.

For this reason they usually built their homes in a way so that the tile floors were supported by cylindrical pillars, creating a space beneath the floor where hot vapors from a central fire could circulate and spread through flues in the walls. 

Source 

Central heating was the first truly reliable source of heat in antiquity and protected the Greeks from various diseases such as the common cold, hypothermia and freezing to death. 

The first known use of central heating was in the Temple of Artemis in the Greek city-state of Ephesus, which was also one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. Another notable system of centralized heating was discovered in Olympia (motherland of the Olympics) and was a bath house. 

They Had Analog Computers That Did Not Need Electricity or Recharging

All right, the term analog computer that some archaeologists used back in the ’60s might be slightly exaggerated but the undeniable fact is that The Antikythera Mechanism, which was recovered in 1900–01 from the Antikythera wreck, is the earliest preserved portable astronomical calculator in history from what we know at this point in time. 

It displayed the positions of the sun, the moon, and most probably the four planets known in antiquity, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter.  It was used to predict solar and lunar eclipses and kept an accurate calendar for the Olympic Games, while scientists have admitted that the Antikythera Mechanism is probably the most advanced and complex ancient device ever discovered. 

Source

For decades, scientific investigation failed to come to a safe conclusion and pretty much relied more on imagination than the actual facts. Now we know that the archaic artifact has a clock mechanism and constituting of about 40 hand-cut bronze gears and its construction dates to the second half of the 2nd century BC. 

The complicated mechanism was protected by a wooden case, which had a bronze plaque on the front and the back. Scientists have examined meticulously the world’s oldest computer to find that the Antikythera mechanism even had instructions to use on its wooden casing. It had a single dial which showed the Greek zodiac and Egyptian calendar at the front and two dials at the back that gave information about lunar cycles and eclipses.

The Antikythera mechanism bears witness to the astronomical, mathematical, and mechanical ingenuity of the ancient Greeks who worked with calculators that did not need batteries or electricity. Now that’s truly genius, isn’t it? 

Btw, I would like to dedicate a song to my AWESOME ancestors! You guys were TRULY UNFORGETTABLE...THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!!!!!

To Read More Go Here...

Sources:

11 Things The Ancient Greeks Did Better Than The Modern Hi-Tech World -Written by me for History Collection