Most inventive Civilization?

what about Babylon?,and all of mesopotamia?

COMPARE MAN-HOURS PER INNOVATION:

What makes the Greeks "most inventive" by most any (non-agenda-driven) standard becomes clear when one considers just how few people were actually involved in generating their massive cultural and technological output.

Begin with the fact that we're talking about a handful of city-states, with limited populations.
Then consider that in fact most of what we consider monumental came from just one of those (Athens) -- and this without the full contribution of slaves and women.
Consider too they did all of it without the full-time jobs that might have supported their undivided attention to technological development. 
Also, the brief time-frame in which most of that output was developed.   You're left with maybe 35 to 50 people in total, contributing 90 percent of the innovations, most of whom lived within a 150 years of one another.  And they did this with lifespans much shorter on average than our own -- the comparison in man-hours is staggering. 
Finally, consider the fact that a great deal of what they created is no longer known to us (we have references to many Aristotelian works no copies of which exist today).

There is no other civilization in history that produced so much, from so few, in such a short span -- THIS is what makes the Greeks incomparably innovative.

It takes tens of thousands of Americans being paid to work 40 hours a week in positions of research and development to show anything like the innovative character of a single ancient Greek city-state.

Incomparable!

- Lauren D.

Once the migrant lives in another place the place he or she goes to gets the  credit. Many ancient Greek inventions came from immigrants but like in the US  they gained more recognition than they would have in their own country. 

Modern era inventions cannot be associated with any nation / civilization, if you ask me.

I would have to go with the Americans. The US more precisely. Especially from the 19th century onward.

Originally posted by GR3Y077 If America is a 'civilization' how can it *not* be number one?

Maybe, just maybe some people think there are more inventive civilizations?

Originally posted by SearchAndDestroy I think playing any stick and ball game will give you a good upper hand in trying another. Looks like it'd be a interesting game to try, but I'm guessing I'd have to get to Chile to try it.

Try this youtubes that show the game of palin (Mapuche Hockey)

Kinda hard to understand how it's played. Sounds like a long game too. Can take a whole afternoon to play.