Greece: ancient civilization

FIGURE 38 Lead coffin. Lead coffin (first—third centuries c.E.) from Jerusalem, Israel. Lead, widely used in many ancient civilizations, was one of the first metals to be recovered from its ores. Lead objects date back from as early as the seventh century b.c.e. In Mesopotamia molten lead was used to fasten bolts and shafts into masonry. In Syria it was made into rods used as currency, and in Greece it was cast into coins. During the Roman Empire the use of lead become so widespread that the health hazards caused by lead exposure are suspected to have been one of the factors affecting the fall of the Roman Empire. Since it is very resistant to corrosion, lead was also used by the Romans, for making coffins as the one illustrated. 

Direct information on the ancient use of protein materials (cereal flours, animal blood, milk, and egg whites) for cosmetic purposes has come to us from all great ancient civilizations Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, and India (1), but the use of proteins for skin and hair care probably antedates recorded history. Traces of the remote self-beautification practices are still found from the residual primitive societies surviving on our planet. They tell us about the instinctive and empirical use of those protein substances which, after all with no capital modifications, are currently used and appreciated in modem cosmetology. For example, the migrant Eritrean shepherds of the Habab tribe still use, almost as unique cosmetic material, camel milk to clean the skin and hair, the Ainu fishers on the island of Hokkaido prepare facial masks with soy flour, the Badui tribe of Java treat hair with packs of rice flour and milk (2). 

Lead falls into a class of poisons called neurotoxins, and has been documented in human remains and artifacts from ancient civilizations Rome (in pipes and hair dyes), Egypt and Greece (in facial makeup), and China (in bronze weapons). A neurotoxin dismpts nerve cells, causing paralysis interferes with the beating of the heart, the rigidity of bones and the elimination of waste kills sperm and causes miscarriages. 

The first records of goiter and cretinism date back to ancient civilizations, the Chinese and Hindu cultures and then to Greece and Rome. In the Middle Ages, goitrous cretins appeared in the pictorial art, often as angels or demons. The first detailed descriptions of these subjects occurred in the Renaissance. The paintings of the madonnas in Italy so commonly showed... 

As further work by Wasson and Hofmann was later to show, there is a strong probability that an LSD-type psychedelic preparation was also, over a period of two millennia, an important and integral part of religious and intellectual life in an area of the world much closer to our western civilization, ancient Greece. See The Road to Eleusis, unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries, by Wasson, Ruck, and Hofmann, Harcourt Brace lovanovich, 1978. (back)... 

Man appears to have an innate appreciation of the principles of symmetry. Every civilization, from ancient Egypt to classical Greece, from the Arabian empires to the American Indians, has produced symmetrical ornaments and friezes, and has intuitively discovered the mathematical principles underlying the construction of periodic patterns. It was not until the 19th and 20th centuries that group theory was rigorously formulated by mathematicians. Today, the fundamental importance of symmetry to the exact sciences is fully appreciated. 

While many civilizations learned how to make dyes and pigments, or ferment fruit into wine, the earliest theories about atoms and what makes up the chemical world came from ancient Greece and India. Leucippus in Greece and Kanada in India both came up with the idea that there must be a small, indivisible part of matter. The Greek word for uncuttable is atomos, clearly the root of the modern term atom. Kanada s term for this similar concept was paramanu or simply anu, the indivisible element of matter. 

Winemaking, or vinification, is a natural process that originated over 8000 years ago in the great civilizations of Mesopotamia, Greece, Egypt and Rome. From its ancient beginnings through the present, wine has been embraced by many cultures and remains a symbol of celebration. 

Philosophers and scholars have discussed ideas about population growth for thousands of years. In ancient Greece, Plato and Aristotle advocated the concept that civilizations should strive to reach certain population levels determined by the maximum quality of life that could be achieved under such numbers. Both Plato and Aristotle examined questions about migration, population and the environment, and fertility control. Similar issues were explored by writers in China and India. 

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