15 old technologies scientists still
cannot explain archaeologists have
discovered some fascinating artifacts
over the centuries these mysterious
discoveries suggest that our ancient
ancestors were more advanced than we
initially thought capable of creating
extraordinary objects that we still
can't figure out still some of these
incredible items only raise more
questions leaving scientists desperately
searching for answers hey everyone how
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consider computers to be a recent
invention nanotechnology cataract
surgery flexible steel that can cut
through a handkerchief in mid-flight or
a flying machine with a manual for
long-distance travel what about sound
chambers that can magnify what someone
says by a factor of 100 or more or
calendars that can be reset from year to
year these inventions appear to be
modern but they're actually centuries
old and they perplexed modern
researchers to no end
we have no idea what many of these
ancient inventions were for how they
were made or how ancient peoples could
have made them without modern technology
for the time being much is up in the air
today we reveal 15 old technologies
scientists still cannot explain stay
with us to the end as number one
promises to blow your mind
calendar
the national trust for scotland led an
excavation in aberdeenshire in 2004 that
unearthed a stone age calendar dating
back 10 000 years the calendar is a 50
meter long piece of parchment that
depicts lunar phases in solar months the
entire parchment depicts a year's worth
of solar and lunar cycles still it's
detailed enough that users can adjust to
their lunar and solar calendars each
year to align with the stages of the
moon the calendar uses 10-day weeks
three per month
the antikythera device divers diving off
the coast of antikythera greece in 1900
discovered a mysterious device that
appeared to be the world's first
computer the mysterious device was a
metal disk with a complex gear system
that was over 2000 years old researchers
have spent a lot of years trying to
figure out what the antikythera device
is for but they've yet to deduce what it
does or how to use it it could have been
linked to the zodiac and moon phases as
well as lunar and solar eclipses however
we simply don't know
the steam-powered engine
the ancient greek god of the winds ilos
inspired the name of the aelophile heron
alexanderness also recognized as the
hero of alexandria created it
a sphere and steam shooting nozzles were
included in the alia pile
the torque required for the sphere to
spin on its axis was created by the
steam emitted by the nozzles the sphere
would eventually settle into a steady
rotation with a maximum speed of 1500
rotations per minute the arab polymath
taki aldin reinvented the steam engine
in 1577
nanotechnology
the lysurges cup a 1600 year old roman
chalice that appeared to change colors
depending on the light was acquired by
the british museum in london in the
1950s
it was jade green when lit from behind
when lit from the front however it was a
deep blood red the cause of this
phenomenon was unknown to researchers at
the british museum researchers
investigating broken fragments from the
cup in the 1990s discovered the answer
in an ancient use of nanotechnology the
gold particles in the cup were ground
down to 50 nanometers in diameter less
than one thousandth the measure of a
grain of salt by the roman craftsman who
built it the precision of the work
suggests that the romans had mastered
nanotechnology by the time the cup was
made
concrete the ancient romans used
concrete extensively in their
construction projects and it was
superior in quality and environmental
impact to what we used today they mixed
lime with a volcanic rock before adding
sea water to make their concrete the
salty water caused a chemical reaction
that strengthened the substance
analyses of the ancient concrete's
chemical and molecular makeup revealed
that it contained minerals that could be
used to make modern high-performance
concrete unlike modern concrete which is
designed to last 50 years ancient roman
concrete has lasted over two thousand
years often underwater earthquake
detector zhang heng a polymath from
ancient china devised a six foot wide
metal vessel that could be utilized in
detecting earthquakes it had eight
dragons shaking down the outside each
with a bronze marble in their mouth the
balls would be loosed by an earthquake
and the dragons would drop them into
bronze toads receiving mouths while the
seismoscope was unfit to predict
earthquakes it did provide chinese
observers with remarkably accurate
information they were able to detect
earthquakes as far away as vietnam and
collect data in the same way that modern
geologists do
telescope
galileo step aside archaeologists
excavating ancient assyrian ruins in
modern day iraq discovered a 3 000 year
old rock crystal lens in 1850
researchers have attempted to explain
its function in the years since its
discovery maybe it was a magnifying
glass with a three times magnification
perhaps it was a burning glass capable
of focusing the sun's rays in order to
start a fire however some scientists
believe the nimrod lens was once part of
an ancient telescope this could account
for the assyrians advanced astronomical
knowledge as well as galileo's claim
that the ancients must have had
telescopes
metal coatings
everything from statues to dvds to solar
cells and electronic equipment now has a
metal coating however the use of metal
coatings is far from new and some
evidence suggests that the ancients had
far superior techniques than we do
ancient metallurgists were competent in
beating metals into incredibly thin
sheets before applying them to statues
jewelry and other items despite their
lack of advanced chemical and physical
knowledge of metals they even employed
mercury as an adhesive to keep the
incredibly thin metal gilding in place
magical gem
the ancient norse depicted a magical gem
that could determine the position of the
sun even when it was obscured allowing
sailors to navigate the high seas with
precision while tales of such a gem may
appear to be as legendary as thor's
hammer a 2013 discovery proved them to
be true calcite a crystal that could
easily determine the location of the sun
even behind clouds was used to make the
mythical sunstone its secret lay in its
power to double refract sunlight
allowing for extremely precise
navigation it's possible that the
ancients who used the stone thought it
was magical
battery
the baghdad battery was discovered in a
paleolithic village outside of modern
day baghdad iraq in 1936 there were
several batteries each of which was made
up of a clay pot with a copper cylinder
running its length an iron rod was held
in place with asphalt inside the copper
cylinder one of the excavation
researchers proposed in 1938 that the
strange clay pots were actually ancient
batteries this theory was confirmed a
decade later when experiments revealed
that when the pots were filled with an
electrolyte fluid they generated two
volts of electricity however we have no
idea what these old batteries were used
for
the voynich manuscript
wilfred voynich a polish-american
collector and antique bookseller bought
a strange manuscript in 1912 that has
perplexed everyone who has tried to
study it the voynich manuscript as it is
known is a 15th century book covered in
hand-drawn pictures and written in an
indecipherable code many of the
illustrations appear to be of plants
leading researchers to believe that the
book is an early text on pharmacology
written in code to hide its recipes from
the church's prying eyes however many of
the images are bizarre and the code used
to write the text has baffled even the
most dedicated code breakers
proto-napalm balms
during the vietnam war one of the most
terrifying substances used by american
forces was napalm images of villages on
fire and children running naked through
the streets to flee the war's wrath
enraged citizens in the united states
however the greeks may have used napalm
in the infamous greek fire that
destroyed ships experiments have shown
that a mixture of naphtha a light crude
oil and pine resin can destroy a wooden
ship in seconds correlating perfectly
with the anecdotal evidence of the
incendiary greek fire
viking swords
all free men were required by viking law
to carry a weapon and be ready to fight
at all times the ulbert swords in
particular are one of the oldest viking
swords discovered dating from around 750
a.d the first question is how they were
created given that the technology wasn't
available for another 800 years in 2014
an arabic inscription on a viking sword
was discovered lending credence to the
theory that the viking swords were made
of damascus steel but where did they get
the recipe and how did vikings and arabs
trade when they were separated by an
entire continent and the mediterranean
damascus steel
during the crusades european warriors
who returned from fighting muslim armies
in the middle east brought tales of the
muslim soldiers unbeatable weapons
because of the damage they could do the
swords made of so-called damascus steel
could have been lightsabers the problem
is that we don't know how damascus steel
was made or even what it was made of it
could have been created by fusing iron
with plant matter giving it the
flexibility described in anecdotal
accounts but we don't know what that
plant matter was or how the blacksmiths
made damascus steel
iron column
the iron pillar of delhi is a sixteen
hundred year old six ton 24 foot tall
iron column there's no rust on it
despite its age some scientists believe
the pillar's resistance to rust is due
to delhi's mild arid climate others
believe the pristine state of the iron
is due to the metal alloy that ancient
engineers were able to create the alloy
is high in phosphorus and devoid of
sulfur and manganese regardless of
whether the column's rust resistance is
due to climate all scientists agree that
it is a remarkable piece of ancient
engineering that's it on the top 15 old
technologies scientists still cannot
explain have you given any of these
innovations some considerations before
now let us know your observations and
thoughts in the comments section below
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