top 10 ancient technology/artifact #1

1) Antikythera Mechanism

recovered in 1900–1901 from the Antikythera wreck,

The Antikythera mechanism is an analog computer that was used by the Greeks more than 2000 years ago to locate and predict the positions of celestial objects. When new, the device was made of bronze with a wooden frame and was roughly the size of a wall clock. The name Antikythera comes from the island near where the device was discovered in the remains of a shipwreck that occurred in or around the year 76 B.C

a antikythera mechanism replica

Like a mechanical clock, the Antikythera mechanism has dials along with a sophisticated system of gears. It bears inscriptions that have been deciphered. Based on its construction and on the nature of the writing, scientists have deduced that the Antikythera mechanism must have been used to measure astronomical time based on cycles of the sun, the moon and the planets. In this way it could have been employed to predict solar and lunar eclipses, tides and the recurrence of the seasons. These functions would have made the device useful to farmers, seafarers and perhaps even military commanders.

2) Abydos Carvings

The Abydos helicopter (a.k.a. Abydos Submarine, Abydos Jet Plane, Abydos UFO etc.)

The Abydos helicopter is a pseudoscientific modern myth that has been spread rapidly via the Internet concerning the singular appearance of a re-carved inscription in the mortuary temple of Seti I in Abydos, Egypt. It is claimed this carving depicts various high-tech and/or alien technologies, such as submarines, jet planes and UFO's, thus playing into the theories that Ancient Egyptian civilization was either influenced or founded by aliens or Atlanteans.

3) The Dendera Lights

The Dendera Lights

The Dendera Lights Carving were found in the Dendera Temple Complex , located about 2.5 km south-east of Dendera, Egypt. It is one of the best-preserved temple complexes in Egypt.

Dendera Temple Complex, Egypt

The Dendera lights is a claim by some conspiracy theorists and "alternate" history nuts that reliefs in the temple of Dendera in Egypt "prove" that the ancient Egyptians harnessed electricity, and used it for lighting

4) Baalbek Megaliths

Baalbek Mgaliths in The Lebanon 

In the middle course of the masonry of the outer wall of the Acropolis at Baalbek in The Lebanon, there are three great stones each measuring 63 ft. long by thirteen feet high by 10ft. thick.

The Acropolis is supposed to have been a Roman Temple dedicated to the god Jupiter-Baal, but no classical scholar has yet been able to explain how three massive cut stones could have been lifted to rest on a substructure 23ft. high. Neither Bechtel nor the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the leading experts on heavy lifting and moving can do that feat today even with the most sophisticated machinery. Each stone after all weighs in the region of 1,200 tons.

Who and what can move any of these stones today and how they moved in the first place?

Even more puzzling is the largest cut-stone known to exist anywhere which is found in the quarry within sight of the Acropolis, about half a mile away. This quarry was presumably the origin of the massive stones in place in the Acropolis. This stone is 68ft. long and roughly 14 ft. square. Its enormity can be judged by noticing the small figure of a man sitting on its top with his friend just below and slightly to the right.

5) The Phaistos Disc

The Phaistos disk is a fired clay disk, probably of Minoan origin, measuring some 16cm in diameter and impressed on both sides with 242 symbols set in a spiral arrangement. As yet, this unique archaeological find remains an undeciphered enigma.

Discovered in 1908 in the ‘Old Palace’ (1900 to 1700 BCE) of  Minoan Phaistos on Crete, little is known for certain about the disk and its origin, manufacture, purpose and meaning are much debated amongst scholars.

6) The Coso Artifact

is it really 500,000 years old or only a hoax?

The Coso artifact is an object claimed by its discoverers to be a spark plug found encased in a lump of hard clay or rock on February 13, 1961 by Wallace Lane, Virginia Maxey, and Mike Mikesell while they were prospecting for geodes near the town of Olancha, California, and long claimed as an example of an out-of-place artifact.

If a spark plug is encased in a 500,000-year-old "geode," this finding would represent a substantial scientific and historical anomaly, as spark plugs were invented in the 19th century. Critics have argued, however, that the concretion, not geode, containing the Coso artifact can be explained by known natural processes and credible evidence for it being 500,000 years old is completely lacking.

7) The Vimanas : India's Tradition of Flying Machines

 In the Vedic literature of India, there are many descriptions of flying machines that are generally called vimanas. These fall into two cate- gories: manmade craft that resemble airplanes and fly with the aid of birdlike wings, and unstreamlined structures that fly in a mysterious manner and are generally not made by human beings. This book gives an elaborate description of vimanas of both categories. In this chapter, I will survey some of the available literature on vima-nas, beginning with the texts dating from late antiquity and the medieval period.

8) Greek Fire/ Sea Fire

Greek Fire an incendiary weapon

Greek fire was an incendiary weapon used by the Eastern Roman Empire. The Byzantines typically used it in naval battles to great effect as it could continue burning while floating on water. It provided a technological advantage, and was responsible for many key Byzantine military victories, most notably the salvation of Constantinople from two Arab sieges, thus securing the Empire's survival.

illustration in war using greek fire

The impression made by Greek fire on the west European Crusaders was such that the name was applied to any sort of incendiary weapon, including those used by Arabs, the Chinese, and the Mongols. These, however, were different mixtures and not the Byzantine formula, which was a closely guarded state secret, a secret that has since been lost. The composition of Greek fire remains a matter of speculation and debate, with proposals including combinations of pine resin, naphtha, quicklime, sulfur, or niter. Byzantine use of incendiary mixtures was distinguished by the use of pressurized nozzles or siphōn to project the liquid onto the enemy.

9) The Nazca lines

Condor Shape Nazca line

The Nazca (also spelled Nasca) Lines are geoglyphs located in an arid coastal area of Peru that cover an estimated 170 square miles (450 square kilometers). The vast majority of the lines date from 200 BC to 500 AD, to a time when a people referred to as the Nazca inhabited the region. The earliest lines, created with piled up stones, date as far back as 500 BC.

Spider Shape Nazca lines

Scratched on the ground, they number in the thousands and depict creatures from both the natural world and the human imagination. They include animals such as the spider, hummingbird, monkey, lizard, pelican and even a killer whale. Also depicted are plants, trees, flowers and oddly shaped fantastic figures. Also illustrated are geometric motifs such as wavy lines, triangles, spirals and rectangles.

10) Nimrud lens

3000 year old piece of Nimrud lens

The Nimrud lens or Layard lens is a 3000-year old piece of rock crystal, which was unearthed by Austen Henry Layard at the Assyrian palace of Nimrud, in modern-day Iraq. It may have been used as a magnifying glass, or as a burning-glass to start fires by concentrating sunlight, or it may have been a piece of decorative inlay.

The function of the lens is not clear, with some authors suggesting that it was used as an optical lens and others suggesting a decorative function. Italian scientist Giovanni Pettinato of the University of Rome has proposed that the lens was used by the ancient Assyrians as part of a telescope, and that this explains their knowledge of astronomy