From 03/02/2016 until 17/02/2016
European Patent Office
Bayerstr. 34
Munchen
Germany
The Museum’s traveling exhibition ”The Hi-Tech Inventions of Ancient Greece” held at the European Patent office in Munich, offers visitors an interactive encounter with the technological achievements of antiquity. Α precise selection of functional reconstructions allows visitors not only to observe but also to understand how ancient mechanisms functioned in practice.
Gears, pulleys, chains, hydraulic controllers, and transmission systems are presented in operation, revealing the principles of motion, energy control, and automation that governed ancient Greek engineering. The exhibition demonstrates that these inventions were not theoretical concepts but functional machines designed to serve practical purposes, from automation and navigation to hydraulics and early computation.
At the same time, the exhibition challenges the common belief that Western technological development followed a continuous upward trajectory. Instead, it presents a historical course marked by a rapid growth and technological peak in the 3rd century B.C., followed by a long period of decline and loss of knowledge. This technology was only gradually re-established many centuries later, with the 13th century A.D. corresponding to the technological level already achieved in the early 2nd century B.C. Through this perspective, the exhibition invites visitors to reconsider the origins of modern technology.