The Mystery Of Lost Technologies: Advanced Tech Lost Or Forgotten Throughout History
Human history has seen us develop ever more advanced technology, building on what came
before.
Major discoveries and inventions have been passed down through generations, which sought
to improve upon them.
Or, that’s what’s happened some of the time.
There are at least a handful of technologies that have been lost to time, as well.
This is Unveiled, and today we're taking a closer look at the advanced technologies that
have been lost (or forgotten) through history!
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Let’s begin with one of the most famous examples of an invention lost to history,
the incendiary weapon of the Eastern Roman Empire: Greek fire.
In 395 CE the Roman Empire was divided into Western and Eastern Empires.
The Western Roman Empire would fall within the following century.
But the Eastern, also called the Byzantine Empire, endured for another thousand years,
and was a force to be reckoned with during the Medieval Era.
One of its most feared weapons was Greek fire, a powerful incendiary substance projected
from flamethrowers, primarily in naval combat.
In actuality, the crusaders of later centuries named it Greek fire; it was known in its day
as Roman Fire.
Invented in the year 672, it played a crucial role in Roman defense during the early Muslim
conquests.
Greek fire was mentioned in texts up until the 13th century, after which it seemed to
have fallen into disuse.
Fire had been used in warfare for centuries prior, but none had quite done it like the
Byzantines.
What they had created was an incredibly flammable liquid, similar to napalm of the modern era,
that would burn on top of water.
It was even claimed that contact with water would ignite it.
Byzantines possessed powerful, pressurized cannons that would spew out the liquid onto
enemy ships.
These really were flamethrowers, in the most literal sense!
The production of the weapon was an incredibly well kept secret, with operators and technicians
only allowed to know about one singular component of it.
This meant that no enemy could learn their secrets.
Even when Bulgarians captured some of the substance and dozens of flamethrowers in 814,
for example, they couldn’t figure out how to make it all work.
Eventually, Greek fire was phased out, and after the 13th century, there exist no accounts
of its use.
The recipe was kept so secret that it was lost to time.
The composition remains a matter of debate between historians, and we’ve been unable
to reproduce it.
Another material that’s perplexed researchers is Damascus steel.
In production from the 3rd to 17th centuries CE, Damascus steel was an incredibly durable
material that could be sharpened to a fine edge.
It was used to smith the blades of swords in the Near East.
Made from a steel known as ‘wootz’ from southern India, it was forged in such a way
that left unique wavy patterns across the surface.
The origin of the steel’s name is contentious.
It may have been named after Damascus, the capital of Syria.
Alternatively, it could derive from Damasqui, a swordsmith who made this type of weapon.
Another theory is that it comes from damas, the Arabic word for water, describing the
rippling pattern on the metal’s surface.
Legends claim that Damascus steel could cut through the barrel of a rifle.
However, the means of forging such blades remains mysterious.
Modern steel outperforms them, but they’re still incredibly well-made for the time.
In 2006, a German research team reported that the blades contained nanowires and carbon-nanotubes,
which may have come from plant fibers being added during the forging process.
These nanotubes strengthened the blades significantly, putting the production process centuries ahead
of its time.
Another major factor was the ore used to create wootz steel, which was rich in impurities.
Eventually, these ore veins depleted, leaving smiths without the raw materials needed.
It’s thought this is the biggest factor for why we can’t reproduce the metal today,
and that without the same raw materials used in the past we will never be able to replicate
it exactly.
Returning to the Romans, another durable, but mysterious material, was Roman concrete.
Or as they called it opus caementicium.
Modern concrete has a lifetime of roughly 50-100 years, but Roman concrete can last
at least two millennia.
It became used widely in approximately 150 BCE, leading to an architectural revolution
that produced buildings still standing today.
For an example, consider the Pantheon in Rome, which has an enormous, concrete dome for a
roof and has stood for 2,000 years.
It’s also somewhat self-healing, with the material used leading to the growth of a rare
mineral, and can repair its own cracks naturally with time.
For hundreds of years after the Empire’s fall, many tried to unlock its method of production.
The mystery recipe was discovered surprisingly recently, with researchers in 2023 finally
solving the riddle.
The key ingredients are quicklime, a highly reactive form of limestone, alongside volcanic
ash, neither of which are used in modern concrete.
It can also be exposed to harsh, underwater conditions for thousands of years with little
wear.
Another pro for the material is that it’s significantly cheaper than modern concrete,
costing up to 60% less to make.
Plus, the lower temperature of the creation process gives it a lower environmental footprint.
This makes it a contender for the most durable building material of all time, and it may
yet end up being utilized to help hold back rising sea levels.
We couldn’t talk about lost technology, though, without discussing the Pyramids.
The earliest Egyptian pyramids were built over 4,500 years ago.
Archaeologists have struggled to understand how they were constructed.
It’s often been supposed that slaves built the pyramids.
But in fact, modern scholars believe it was the work of thousands of paid laborers, many
of whom were actually farmers.
These farmers worked on the builds during periods of the year when flooding made farming
impossible.
There would have also been highly-skilled craftsmen.
In general, it was considered an honor to build a pyramid for your Pharaoh, who was
seen as a god on earth.
We now have an overall picture of their construction.
The pyramid blocks were carved out at nearby quarries.
It’s believed that they were then transported along the Nile River and a series of canals
to the pyramid bases.
Alternatively, they may have been pulled on sleds, with the sand below wetted so that
they could slide across with ease.
Once the blocks arrived, how they were lifted and stacked atop each other is still somewhat
mysterious.
The most popular theory is that laborers used ramps.
They may also have employed lever systems, or ropes with pulleys and counterweights.
Of course, some think it was just all too difficult for humans to achieve, and credit
the pyramids to alien visitors.
There’s no evidence of extraterrestrial intervention, and it could be argued that
the theory underestimates human ingenuity.
Even if we do ever have a complete understanding of how humans built the pyramids, it will
only add to their wonder.
But finally, what about in our own time?
Will the wonders of all the technology we have today make it into the future?
We’re surrounded by advanced products...
but, in many cases, there’s actually very little effort being put into preserving them.
One example of this is with video games.
A recent study conducted by the Video Game History Foundation showed that 87% of all
games before 2010 are ‘critically endangered’.
With methods of data storage advancing so quickly in our age, there is little attention
given to preserving old methods.
These old games and consoles are discontinued, rarely if at all re-released, and they degrade
with time.
At this rate, not only will early video games be lost, but enormous quantities of other
forms of data may disappear, as well.
This is a phenomenon called digital obsolescence, and some think it may even cause a digital
dark age, where vast quantities of information on archaic storage methods will become lost
to time.
Thankfully, more effort is being made to save older media devices, and hopefully our digital
era will be preserved for the future… but still, as the technologies in this video show,
nothing is truly invulnerable.
What do you think?
Is there anything we missed?
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