Healing a Hidden Trauma of National Memory

In school history books, the technological achievements of the ancient Greeks are not sufficiently highlighted.

The "lid" of the treasure of Eleutherna. Its "twists," as well as those on the neck of the treasure, were specially designed to hinder would-be usurpers of its contents.

“There is a multiple deficiency and therefore a multiple need to restore a hidden trauma of national memory: we ignore or, to put it mildly, underestimate the role of ancient Greek technology as an essential component of ancient Greek civilization.”

Thus began our conversation with Professor Emeritus of the National Technical University of Athens, Mr. Theodosios Tasios, on the occasion of the recent conference of the Society for the Exploration of Ancient Greek and Byzantine Technology (EDA-BYT), some of whose announcements you will read in the following pages.

According to the distinguished Greek professor, “There is no civilization in the world that is not based on the economy and technology. It cannot be otherwise; this is the nature of things. How can a civilization be established without a city, how can a civilization be established without an economy, how can the economy function without technology? It cannot! Therefore, it is obvious that a civilization cannot be described or rather we cannot feel it unless we start from its roots, the economy and technology.”

It is a fact that from school history books, which primarily focus on wars, the technological achievements of the ancient Greeks are missing or not sufficiently highlighted. Thus, the image we have of them is rather incomplete since “their technophilia, which is evident already from their mythology, i.e., from the psychological disposition of these people,” is not taken into account, noted Mr. Tasios, who during his speech reminded the conference audience that “at the root of the very religion of the ancient Greeks lie two Olympian gods-engineers, Hephaestus and Athena.”

Indeed, from “the intricate and insoluble bonds” that, as mentioned in the “Odyssey,” Hephaestus used to bind his unfaithful wife Aphrodite and her lover Ares to his marital bed, to the massive land reclamation projects of the Mycenaeans, the Athenian triremes (which proved to be the “super-weapon” of the Athenians during the Persian Wars), and the helepoleis (i.e., the self-propelled war towers) used by Alexander the Great in his campaign, the history of the Greek tribes is (also) a history of technological development. Which we should not ignore.

For the past 40 years, EDA-BYT has been aiming to heal this hidden trauma of national memory through lectures, courses, conferences, but primarily through the research work of its members.

The scientists of EDA-BYT, on the one hand, study excavation findings with modern means, on the other hand—by consulting sources and studying them thoroughly— “revive” ancient technological achievements, proving their functionality. In other words, they piece together the puzzle of our history bit by bit.

And for this, we owe them all a big “thank you.”

By Ioanna Soufleri. You can find the article (in greek) here.