On April 30th, “Archimedes and His Time”, an interactive exhibition from Athens, Greece, opens at the Energy and Technology Museum.
The exhibition is a selection from the exhibits of the Museum of Ancient Greek Technology Kostas Kotsanas that operates in Athens, Heraklion (Crete), Ancient Olympia and Katakolon port.
The museum revives approximately 350 extraordinary ancient Greek inventions, presenting their functional models (from the robot-handmaid of Philon to the cinema of Heron, and from the automatic clock of Ktesibios to the analog computer of Antikythera). This collection was created through a long-time and intensive study of ancient Greek, Latin and Arabic literature, vase painting information and minimal relevant archaeological finds.
Complemented by the Museum of Ancient Greek Technology, this exhibition aims to demonstrate that the technology of the ancient Greeks, just before the end of the ancient world, was shockingly similar to the beginning of our modern-day technology.
These legacies, identical and irreplaceable, continue until today to constitute the core elements of our modern-day technology, the development of which would be doubtful without its effortless and undemanding adoption. Only after a millennium of maturation was humanity able to recover this remarkable forgotten technology.
The investigation of this era, when intellectual ownership for cutting-edge technology could not be patented, demonstrates how much more than we realize our modern Western Technological Civilization owes to the Greeks.
Konstantinos Kotsanas (born in 1963, in Aigeira-Seliana, Achaia) studied in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Patras, Greece. He has dedicated his life to the study of ancient Greek culture, particularly in the field of ancient Greek technology. A lot of his research, studies and reconstructions that concern Ancient Greek Technology have been presented at international conferences with exceptional success.
He has set up, at his own expense, the Museum of Ancient Greek Technology and the Museum of Ancient Greek Musical Instruments and Toys operating in Katakolo (Greece) and the Archimedes’ Museum in Ancient Olympia (Greece); all the exhibits have been constructed by himself. All Museums attract large numbers of Greek and foreign visitors.
He has held several exhibitions of all or part of the museum exhibits, in both Greece and abroad. He has written six books concerning Ancient Greek Technology.
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Organized by:
Energy and Technology Museum
Museum of Ancient Greek Technology Kostas Kotsanas
Financed by:
◾ The exhibition will be on display from April 30th to November 24th, 2024, in the Turbine Hall
◾ Price of visiting the exhibition: museum visitor ticket +3.50 Eur
◾ On May 2nd at 6 PM Panagiotis Kotsanas will present the high technologies of the ancient Greeks in the guided tour. Event is free of admission charge and will be held in English. Registration is here.