Women in Turkey have been returning to 2,500-year-old fashions, as bracelets, earrings and other accessories styled after pieces in the Iron Age section of the Antalya Archeology Museum grow more popular by the day.

Corc Bozkurt (68), who has been a jewelry designer for 55 years, says most of the orders he has been getting recently have been for imitations of Iron Age accessories. There is strong demand for bracelets and rings in particular, he adds. "There has been a return to the fashions of antiquity. The new styles in jewelry design actually date back thousands of years. I always take older jewelry as examples for my new designs." He said depending on the craftsmanship, the prices of the accessories sold in his store range from YTL 5 to YTL 300. He added that they are also very popular among foreign tourists visiting the region.

The past is alive. While we cannot go back in time, we can use the knowledge and spirit of the Ancients to express our culture from a modern perspective. Tradition is timeless. Just like this Turkish jewelry designer is using Iron Age accessories as a template for his work today, the knowledge and experience gathered by our ancestors are finding new life by melting with the current time frame, touching at the eternal. An interesting example of this:

Japanese scientists will next month look into seismic resistance secrets in the design of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon which has withstood scores of quakes, a senior Greek archaeologist said on Friday.

"The Parthenon had great resilience to earthquakes, as did most classical Greek temples," Maria Ioannidou, the archeologist in charge of conservation on the ancient Acropolis citadel where the Parthenon stands, told AFP.

"The ancient Greeks apparently had very good knowledge of quake behaviour and excellent construction quality," she added.

We like to think we're the height of humanity, but as soon as we begin to ponder the greatness of past civilizations such as Ancient Greece, we slowly come to terms with the reality: history doesn't linearly strive towards greatness. It runs in cycles. If we create great art today, then so did Renaissance Italy. If we build great roads today, then so did Rome. If we construct great buildings today, then so did Ancient Greece. If we believe we're that great, we need to demonstrate that in culture, spirit and common achievements. Understanding the past civilizations and putting their ideas into practice is the gateway to rise from the ashes to the stars.