humanity some inventions from ancient times still remain a mystery though the
Greek fire used by the Byzantine Empire in the seventh century is one of the
biggest secrets in science this was a liquid substance thrown from ships it
was impossible to extinguish with water and it spread quickly
this substance helped to defeat enemies in many naval battles in fact it has
served an inspiration for the famous wildfire on the series Game of Thrones
National Geographic got closer to making this fire by the creation of a
flamethrower built with a brass tube and a mixture of oil and pine resin however
there is a belief that the Greek fire contained naphtha sulphur and ammonia
among other substances the components of the Greek fire were a well-kept secret
nowadays historians and chemists continue to look for the way to
reproduce the formula of the Greek fire that seems to have lost in time Damascus
steel the Christian soldiers who fought in the Crusades came across a type of
weapon that had never been seen before the swords carried by the Islamic
military were constructed with the Damascus steel the strength flexibility
and wave-like patterns made them completely unique it is a fact that they
could cut a still prevail in the air and they could slice a rock without damaging
the blade sharpness these swords were made of crucial steel meaning steel made
with a different heating and cooling techniques moreover they were made with
a mixture of iron mineral wood leaves and coal however the specifications for
making these swords disappeared when the last blacksmiths who made them died in
the year 1700 competence universe stay in Madrid Spain states that they
have unveiled the secret to make these swords in fact they have the patent to
forge steel swords with a high content of carbon nevertheless there are still
debates by experts in metallurgy about the real manufacturing of Damascus steel
number 8 the Voynich manuscript Wilfrid Voynich a Lithuanian antiquarian of
Polish origin got a manuscript by an anonymous author the content of this
manuscript is still unknown Voynich spent his life trying to find out the
secrets of the document the book known as the Voynich manuscript honoring
voyages name has 246 pages and it is written in an alphabet that nobody has
been able to identify it is an undecipherable language in 2009 carbon
dating technique was performed on this manuscript
hence it found out that the manuscript was from the 15th century this
manuscript has hundreds of drawings that allow dividing the content of it into
sections such as botany biology and astrology it also has miniatures of
naked women and water or walking in the water and they are interacting by means
of tubes or capsules these miniatures are very strange considering the age of
the document it has become the most researched puzzle that has to be solved
number 7 the Antikythera mechanism
this corded brass object that seems useless is actually a 2,000 years old
analog computer the Antikythera mechanism was recovered from the bottom
of the sea in 1901 near Antikythera island greece it is divided into 82
pieces the device is a complex clock mechanism system made up of many brass
gears antiques experts have found out that this system was used to calculate
the moon phases and the lunisolar calendar
it could also forecast eclipses and be used to plan the exact date of the
Panhellenic games such as Olympic at critical games moreover it was also used
to show the planet movements known by that time to study its mechanism a
special tomograph built for the investigation of this ancient object the
similar technology was not developed until the Scientific Revolution between
the 16th and 17th centuries so it's a real mystery to know who made this
device and how its creator got the necessary knowledge to make a futuristic
invention at that time number 6 Shang hang seismograph present-day
seismographs have nothing to do with the first earthquake detector in history
Zhang hang a Chinese scientist and an astronomer from the East Han Dynasty
this seismoscope in the year 132 ad it is a copper vessel with dragon
heads aiming at the cardinal points beneath the dragon heads
there are various toads with open mouths when there was an earthquake a bronze
bar fell into one of the toads mouth indicating where the earthquake had
taken place and this device is able to detect earthquakes occurring 600
kilometers away some theorists believe that it is a system based on a free
swinging pendulum driven by inertia however the operation of this device is
one of the biggest mysteries in history the original seismograph does not exist
anymore and most of its replications are used just for decoration
there is a functional replica of this device in the History Museum in Beijing
number five Ulfberht Sword, many tombs from the Viking Age have been discovered
all over the north of Europe archaeologists have found inside the
tombs a total of 171 Ulfberht Sword, these swords were made with
techniques that were very advanced for that age they got their name from the
inscription plus Ulfberht on their blades the meaning of this word is still
unknown these swords are made of 99.9% pure metal which was free from slag also
having an almost perfect carbon balance according to experts the technology to
make these swords was superior at that time this technology did not appear but
800 years later in other regions it is similar to the one used for making
Damascus steel in 2014 a 9th century tomb was found in Scandinavia this tomb
had an Islamic inscription this finding makes scientists think that there may be
a link between Viking swords and the weapons used centuries later by the
Arabian militaries in the Crusades however no evidence has validated this
coincidence number forms the iron pillar of Delhi
time is a deadly enemy of ancient monuments that causes maximum damage
that's why this iron pillar weighing 6 tons and 7.21 meters high which is not
rusted during more than 1600 years it is still an engineering mystery located in
Delhi India the only clue about its origin is the inscriptions on the metal
they can be perfectly seen after centuries of exposure to the natural
environment many scientists think that the mild weather in the area does not
affect this big iron mass others suggest that phosphorus is a component of the
pillar and there is no sulphide and manganese in its structure which could
contribute to the good condition of the monument however all scientists agree
that this big iron monument is a living testimony of the wisdom of India's
former inhabitants number three, The Phaistos Disc, Luigi Pernier, an Italian
archaeologists discovered the fastest disc on the Greek island of Crete in
1908 this disc also known as the rosetta stone of the Minoan civilization and
made from baked clay is 15 centimetres in diameter and dates back to the late
Minoan Bronze Age it is engraved on both sides with a spiral of 242 symbols the
real meanings of these symbols are still unknown there are some theories about
the symbols they seem to be printed with a kind of seal this fact makes
historians think that this is probably one of the oldest printed documents in
existence or this object might have been used as a seal itself and may be
considered the first printing attempt it is also believed that this disc was a
musical score or even an asset inventory a calendar or a game a true thing is
that present time experts consider it a jigsaw puzzle
number two Roman dodecahedron despite the fact Roman civilization has been
studied for centuries still it is full of mysteries one of those mysteries is
the Roman dodecahedron it dates back 200 years ad it is a hollow object with 12
sides made up of brass or stone each side has a pentagonal shape and a hole
in the center hundreds of these devices have been found from Wales too hungry
especially in Germany France and Italy its size varies between 4 centimeters to
11 centimeters however no document has information about its existence or
purpose this is weird considering that Roman civilization kept the records of
almost everything there is a belief that these dodecahedron were used as candle
holders dice gauges for water pipes or simply as a solid foundation to support
the Roman eagle symbol it is also possible to think that these objects
were used for religious purposes or fortune-telling there is no doubt that
this is a multi-purpose mysterious object number one giant stone spheres
more than 500 pre-columbian stone spheres were discovered in the Sierpe district,
in the south of Costa Rica in 1939 the size of the stones ranges from
30 to 257 and they weigh between two kilos and 16 tonnes it was concluded
that Costa Rica's indigenous people used advanced cutting and polishing
techniques to transform blocks gia rites and igneous rock into spheres of the
perfect finish moreover it is believed that a superior method to transport
these spheres was also used experts state that these spheres are a mystery
not because of their construction but because of what they represent nobody
has figured it out yet many of these stones have been moved or exploited by
treasure hunters this situation has become an obstacle for investigation
some of these stones were placed near human and animal statues few data
suggests that this group of rocks my been used as an astronomical calendar
but the only truth is that there are not spheres like these in any other place on