Evidence of advanced ancient technology

davycc

Hello,

Im after seeing this link in an AH thread on unsolved mysteries...

http://hallofthegods.org/articles/evidence-of-advanced-ancient-technology.html

Is this serious or is it just some BS tale like the "london bus on the moon:D"...

man made items being discovered in coal and rocks millions of years old

I thought I would have heard about it before if it were credible;)

Thanks in advance

charlemont

Fair amount of stuff online about it, Some interesting stuff.

Wibbs

A lot of those "found in coal/stones" stories come from the late 19th, early 20th century when they were a popular meme(though still a popular one among young earth creationists). There's never been an modern testable independent example of one.

dahamsta

Closest I've come across in Real Life[tm] is the Antikythera Mechanism, and although it's astounding, it's hardly ancient and it's perfectly believable given the things the Egyptians (and even our own ancestors) were able to do with architecture. I reckon the "ancient" stuff might be more at home in the Conspiracy Theories forum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

Wibbs

dahamsta wrote: »

Closest I've come across in Real Life[tm] is the Antikythera Mechanism, and although it's astounding, it's hardly ancient and it's perfectly believable given the things the Egyptians (and even our own ancestors) were able to do with architecture. I reckon the "ancient" stuff might be more at home in the Conspiracy Theories forum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

To be fair the Antikythera Mechanism is beyond astounding in it's understanding of motion and gearing and how out of place it is, given gearing of it's like was absent until the late middle ages, thousands of years later.

dahamsta

So are the pyramids, and in fact many of the wonders our ancestors developed predate the pyramids. Again though, they're not ancient. We were way beyond caves at that point.

slowburner

Wouldn't it be interesting to see a few examples of the products of ancient technologies? Many of these are still puzzles today.

One of my favourites is the stonework of the Incas.
(Ollantaytambo stonework.)



Not to mention the capstones of megaliths closer to home.
(Browneshill Dolmen, Carlow)

cfuserkildare

Take a look at Goebekli Tepe and many other sites in ancient Turkey, amazing stuff.

davycc

cfuserkildare wrote: »

Take a look at Goebekli Tepe and many other sites in ancient Turkey, amazing stuff.

Im watching it on Nat Geo channel now:D

11500yrs old unbelievable:cool:

Its a shame that my original link has no credibility with the evidence being tampered or unavailable.

cfuserkildare

Glad you liked it,

Also check out Graham Hancocks theory about sea level rising and civilisation development around rivers, (FYI Graham Hancock is kinda responsible for organised underwater archeology). Check out UnderWorld and Fingerprints of the Gods.

Cheers.

Maudi

slowburner wrote: »

Wouldn't it be interesting to see a few examples of the products of ancient technologies? Many of these are still puzzles today.

One of my favourites is the stonework of the Incas.
(Ollantaytambo stonework.)



Not to mention the capstones of megaliths closer to home.
(Browneshill Dolmen, Carlow)

great pic of the b.hill portal tomb i heading down to see it soon again...its immensively impressive at maybe a hundred tons.

dr gonzo

These are generally referred to as OOPArts and are mostly faked or reasonably explainable. However there are some astounding ones that are unexplainable (in the sense that they dont fit our current understanding, not that aliens put them there or anything silly like that).

Incidentally, have people seen the LEGO model of the Antikythera mechanism? Very cool.

LEGO Antikythera

bogwalrus

slowburner wrote: »

Wouldn't it be interesting to see a few examples of the products of ancient technologies? Many of these are still puzzles today.

One of my favourites is the stonework of the Incas.
(Ollantaytambo stonework.)



Not to mention the capstones of megaliths closer to home.
(Browneshill Dolmen, Carlow)

I actually know how they did the cap stones. They built a mound with the smaller stones in it. Managed with a lot of strength to pull the larger stone on top. They then dug away the mound to a stable point where the capstone remained on top. My guess anyway. Its how i would do it.

slowburner

bogwalrus wrote: »

I actually know how they did the cap stones. They built a mound with the smaller stones in it. Managed with a lot of strength to pull the larger stone on top. They then dug away the mound to a stable point where the capstone remained on top. My guess anyway. Its how i would do it.

And they used rollers - well that's the theory. No wood has survived to prove it, and it's unlikely that any will ever be found.
Still, you have to imagine the amount of effort and time that went into the construction of these megaliths - to me, that is the amazing thing.

davycc

cfuserkildare wrote: »

Glad you liked it,

Also check out Graham Hancocks theory about sea level rising and civilisation development around rivers, (FYI Graham Hancock is kinda responsible for organised underwater archeology). Check out UnderWorld and Fingerprints of the Gods.

Cheers.

Thanks I must look it up:cool:

Im watching History Channel@Lost cities of the ancients:
Dark lords of Hattusha ,
Such an impressive lost capital city of the Hittite empire....
its inspiring stuff that some day we might discover another lost empire:)

davycc

slowburner wrote: »

And they used rollers - well that's the theory. No wood has survived to prove it, and it's unlikely that any will ever be found.
Still, you have to imagine the amount of effort and time that went into the construction of these megaliths - to me, that is the amazing thing.

It seems the most likely explanation by far.
Ive used wooden fencing stake posts as rollers when moving a heavy arkward garden shed and it definitly works fine:even for a weakling like myself.

Its definitly amazing to think of the sheer time put into such heavy megeliths

cfuserkildare

Makes you wonder alright,

How did they build Macchu Picchu?

Surely it would have been kinda difficult at the top of a mountain. Especially considering the size and weight of some of the stones that were used.

Another one to ponder.

bogwalrus

I think the best answer is "with great hardship they built these massive temples".

Humans in the past were just seriously devote workers and labourers. At the end of their hard days work they probably felt great. So different from the times we live in now.

slowburner

bogwalrus wrote: »

I think the best answer is "with great hardship they built these massive temples".

Humans in the past were just seriously devote workers and labourers. At the end of their hard days work they probably felt great. So different from the times we live in now.

Dear Neolithic Diary,
Day one, felt great.
Day two, still feeling good.
Day seventeen, fairly tired, but the craic is mighty.
Day one hundred and forty nine, if I have to lift one more bleedin' stone, Lugh will get it in the back of the neck - the miserable git. And as for that gobshíte Fraech, prancing about as if he owns the place. I'm sick to the teeth of Éibhear telling me how to do things.
Banbha willing, I'll get a good kip tonight and things will look better in the morning.

slowburner

Now here's a thought: the very first people to exploit metal - how on earth did they find out about it?
First of all, the rock containing the mineral has to be identified.
Various stains on rocks, can indicate various metals; but you have to know what the metals are first, before you can identify the staining from the metal you want to exploit.
Secondly you have to crush and melt (smelt) the rock to turn the metal molten.
This is the part that I find most intriguing. To extract iron from the rock, the fire needs to be up to around 1,600º C, slightly lower for copper at 1084º C, lower still for lead at 327º C, and tin only requires a temperature of 232º C. (link)
A fire at the temperature required for copper smelting can only be achieved by using charcoal and even then, air needs to be forced into the embers to get the temperature up to the required level.
An ordinary open wood fire only achieves an average temperature in the range of 600º - 1,000 C amongst the hottest embers at the core.
So this means that the phenomenon of rocks yielding up molten metal is unlikely to have been observed occurring naturally.
Perhaps molten metal was observed near, or as a product of volcanic activity.

The temperature required to melt the ore can be reduced by the addition of various oxides as fluxes or eutectics (link to experimental smelting).
Is it conceivable that our ancient forebears knew how to reduce the melting point of metal ores by adding fluxes? They would have needed to recognise the oxides, extract them, and combine them in the correct quantity with the ore.

And when, where, and how did the people of the Bronze Age come up with the idea of alloying tin with copper to make it harder?
Head scratching stuff.

Mountainsandh

I don't have any of the knowledge you have but have often thought the same... how the hell did they do it, think of it ?

davycc

Wibbs wrote: »

To be fair the Antikythera Mechanism is beyond astounding in it's understanding of motion and gearing and how out of place it is, given gearing of it's like was absent until the late middle ages, thousands of years later.

There is a amazing programme on bbc3 now about the mechanism:cool:

Mountainsandh

BBC4, thanks !

davycc

Mountainsandh wrote: »

BBC4, thanks !

Yep sorry! I was just about to ninja-edit my post..

Unreal show

Mountainsandh

Only caught the end thanks to you, yeah it was great, makes me want to go back to Greece, went there as a kid, don't remember the half of it.

davycc

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Only caught the end thanks to you, yeah it was great, makes me want to go back to Greece, went there as a kid, don't remember the half of it.

You might be able to catch it again at some stage again on the BBC Player if you can convince its server your in the UK.

The show itself was pretty mindblowing stuff......

the amount of design & accurate predictions of all eclipses & the stages of the planets was unbelievable