Kotsanas museum of Ancient Greek Technology

The aim of the museum is to highlight the technological excellence of ancient Greece. After all, ancient technology was an important part of the culture of the time, but has been left somewhat overlooked today.

The museum is located in an Art Nouveau building at 6 Pindarou. The museum is very close to the Parliament and Syntagma metro station. In the early 20th century, the building belonged to the Aspasia Manou family, wife of King Alexander I. Alexander was king from 1917 to 1920, and Kostas Kotsanas, the namesake of the museum, was born in 1963. He studied at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Patras Polytechnic. According to the museum's website, he has dedicated his life to the study of ancient Greek culture, especially in the field of ancient Greek technology.
The museum was once nominated European Museum of the Year. But that was some time ago.

 

The permanent exhibitions cover an area of 700 square metres. However, the old building is narrow and not ideal for this type of subject. The exhibitions are somewhat fragmented and the best way to explore the museum would undoubtedly be a guided tour, with a relatively small number of participants due to space constraints. A tour like this was in progress at the time of my visit and seemed to work well with an interactive approach.

One of the great names in ancient technology was Philon, who was born in Byzantium around 260 BCE. He taught in Rhodes and Alexandria, where he died around 180 BC. The museum says he was the director of the Mouseion of Alexandria, an inventor, engineer, physicist, mathematician and astronomer. He made particular contributions to the fields of engineering, fluid mechanics and automation. Philon described 78 devices that worked with water, steam and air in his work 'Pneumatica', which has survived in Arabic translation. Some of his great inventions included robotics, an amazing programmable theatre and an impressive hydraulic automatic fountain.


Exhibition on musical instruments

At the time of the visit, the top floor of the museum had a small but interesting exhibition of ancient musical instruments - it was nice to be able to hear the sound of some of the instruments. On the basement floor there was a one-room exhibition of soldiers' equipment. The equipment itself was very impressive, but there was not much background to the exhibition.

The equipment exhibition featured a reconstruction of a Byzantine medieval infantryman's armour based on art sources (ivory icon, Saint Demetrios, 950-1000 CE, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).



As well as experimental technical equipment, videos and images, the museum also uses texts to explain the history of ancient technology. It starts from Greece's position at the crossroads of East and West, Europe, Asia and Africa. Here, from Neolithic times onwards, people mixed and exchanged cultures. Innovative ideas were adopted and shared. At the same time, the mountainous and difficult terrain of the continent, and the numerous island clusters, forced the Greeks to create hundreds of autonomous city-states, each with a different cultural and social orientation. Important ports were developed for inter-city maritime transport.

The harsh and barren terrain made them seafarers, explorers and traders. The Greeks spread across the Mediterranean basin, establishing dozens of colonies in Europe, Asia and Africa, creating fertile ground for the mixing of civilisations and the advancement of science and technology.

First in Ionia and later on the continent, Greek thinkers used logical arguments to find the origins of this world, rejecting earlier mythological accounts. The museum records the great names of the era who laid the foundations of Western science, from Socrates to Aristotle and Plato. They and their predecessors laid the foundations for the birth of science and the great technological revolution of the Hellenistic era.

According to the museum, the end of the 4th century BCE saw a scientific and technological revolution unparalleled in the ancient world. This technological marvel spread almost all throughout the Mediterranean thanks to Greek colonisation and Alexander the Great. Athens, Syracuse in Sicily, Pergamum in Asia Minor, Antioch, Alexandria in Egypt and Rhodes are the main Greek cities that led this technological revolution.

The Aristotelian scientific and inquiring spirit of Alexander the Great and his successors prevailed. On the other hand, it was also believed that the acquisition of high technology was a competitive advantage for the state in times of war or peace. Greek contact with the scientific discoveries of eastern civilizations and their centuries-old archives (Sumerians, Chaldeans, Hittites, etc.) enriched their thinking.


Photo of the exhibition

Location: Pindarou 6, Athina 106 71, Kreikka

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

National Archaeological Museum

Image
If someone interested in ancient Greek civilization were to visit only one museum in Athens besides the Acropolis, the destination could be the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. NAM is the largest museum in Greece and one of the most significant museums in the world dedicated to the cultural heritage of the Mediterranean and antiquity.   Archaeological Museum, March 2022. Photo OI  The museum was founded in 1886, and the building was inaugurated in 1889. Designed by the German architect Ernst Ziller, the structure follows the tradition of Berlin’s Altes Museum and the grand neoclassical museums built thereafter, as well as the neoclassical architecture of Athens created by the Hansen brothers. Ziller (1837–1923) was a major figure in late 19th-century Greek architecture, with over 500 buildings to his name. He also designed an elegant private residence for Heinrich Schliemann, which now houses the Numismatic Museum. Photo from the museum brochure The Archaeological Mus...
Read more

Roman Agora and The Tower of the Winds

Image
During the Roman era, a new commercial center emerged in Athens, known as the Roman Agora. It was built between 19 and 11 BCE, as the older Greek and Hellenistic era Agora had become filled with various activities. The Roman Agora was designated for commercial activities. The western entrance of the Roman Agora, the Athena Archegetis Gate, photographed in March 2022. The picture was taken from inside the Agora. Photo: OI An image on an information board showing the buildings in the area. The old Agora is in the foreground, and the Roman Agora is depicted in color. In the lower part of the information board is the Athena Archegetis Gate. To the right is the Church of Sotira near Pazaroporta, and in the background are the churches of Taxiarchs and Prophitis Ilias. (Chr. Hansen, 1833) The Roman Agora and other key ancient archaeological sites placed on the current map of Athens. The image is from an information board. A combined ticket provides access to these sites. The map also indicate...
Read more

The Benaki Museum of Islamic Art

Image
The Benaki Museum of Islamic Art presents the extensive collections of Antonis Benakis, who was born in Egypt and later moved to Greece. The museum is located relatively close to the Acropolis, and the Kerameikos neighborhood has other archaeological sites and a museum as well. Museum of Islamic Art. March 2022. Photo by OI   I visited the Museum of Islamic Art on Sunday. While transferring from Monastiraki metro station to the museum, one could walk through a vast and interesting antique market area. The museum building is an old neoclassical urban mansion, and the exhibition is spread across several floors. The historical layers of the area are illustrated by the preserved and exhibited part of Athens' old defense wall in the basement, built in preparation for the Macedonian invasion. Preserved defensive structures in the basement. Photo by OI The exhibition is aesthetically well-crafted. The collection appears to be somewhat fragmentary, as collector's collections often are....
Read more