In our modern world, it's easy to think we've got technology all figured out,

but while we've come along leaps and bounds over the centuries,

our ancient ancestors were, surprisingly, much further ahead, technology-wise,

than we generally assume.

From ancient automatic doors to 2,000-year-old computers,

stay tuned for some truly amazing ancient

technologies that were way ahead of their time.

Whether it's on your phone or a good old-fashioned clock, we all dread our early morning wake-up alarm,

but as much you might hate it, you can't deny it's useful.

Many of our ancient ancestors had to rely on First Light or the call of the local rooster to wake them up.

But what if you needed to get up earlier than those all-natural wake-up calls? Well, surprisingly, the idea for an awakening device can be traced back as far as 427 BC.

This nifty piece of tech takes us back to the day of ancient Greek philosopher Plato.

Now, what with laying the foundations for many of our ideas about society and philosophy,

Plato had a pretty tight schedule.

So, to make sure he was always up on time to share his ideas with his students,

he's recorded as having possessed a large water clock,

with an alarm signal that rang out when it was time to rise.

But hang on, rewind. What exactly is a water clock anyhow?

Was it some kind of Greek prank involving waking someone with a soaking from an icy bucket of water?

I mean that would definitely work, right?

Well, not quite.

You see, in ancient Greece, clocks weren't actually a new thing,

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