Misplaced objects: computers, batteries, lamps and airplanes in ancient times!
According to the Ancient Astronaut Theory, in the distant past, extraterrestrial travelers visited our ancestors, influencing the natural evolution of the human species.
Did aliens really inspire and help our ancestors build ancient megalithic temples and pyramids?
And if they came here, did they leave us with advanced knowledge of physics, astronomy and mathematics? If so, is there any evidence of it today?
An example would be an object often referred to as the world's first mechanical computer. It dates back more than 2 thousand years ago. The “Antikythera Machine” was found in 1900 by some sponge collectors, while they were diving off the coast of a small Aegean island called Antikythera.
The fishermen found a wreck on the seabed and inside it a coral-encrusted box made of a metal alloy. It was taken to the museum in Athens, where only 50 years later it was possible to scan the box with sophisticated.
The device is a mechanism originally contained in a wooden casing, measuring 30x15 centimeters which science was unable to catalog for a long time. It is a technological object of very high precision and which mainly had astronomical functions.
The machine has been studied in detail to measure the movements of the sun and moon, eclipses, their motion ratios and even lunations. And as if that wasn't enough, the machine probably also served to define the calendar of the Olympics.
The mystery of the machine lies in its extraordinary precision. It is in fact built with common materials for the time and the measurements are limited to the planets visible from the earth without the aid of particular instruments.
But the level of detail remains astonishing: the device's ability to even calculate delays in lunar movements, due to the elliptical orbit, with appropriate design and a dedicated gear is confirmed.
In the inscriptions on the machine there are the names of Venus and Mercury, but there are scholars who argue that the Antikythera machine can actually reveal information about other planets as well.
The machine is defined by science as technically much more complex than any other conceivable device found for at least a thousand years after its dating.
Such a level of complexity could mean that whoever built it was used to this type of work: it would therefore not be a unique example, but something that inevitably comes from a long history.
The object is thought to date back to 200 BC. Given its complexity, superior to any contemporary Swiss watch, the Antikythera Machine is to be considered an anomaly. Who could have created it? And what was it used for?
When archaeologists began examining it in the 1950s, they said it was inconceivable that the ancient Greeks had made such a complicated machine. They said it was like finding a jet jet in Tutankhamun's tomb.
Dendera lamps
Even older than the Antikythera Machine are the carvings on a wall in the monumental complex of Dendera, Egypt. To some, these strange drawings appear to depict objects commonly used in our age.
The depictions are found in a secret underground crypt, to which only the highest priests had access. The crypt is a very narrow place, with a very low ceiling and a very high ambient temperature.
On the walls of the crypt there are some reliefs that appear to represent what appear to be enormous filament lamps. Looking at the images and considering the darkness of the crypt, the question arises spontaneously: “How did the Egyptians illuminate the inside of their tombs?”
According to traditional archaeology, ancient Egyptians used torches to illuminate the chambers of tombs and temples. Yet, there is not the slightest trace of soot or smoke residue on the ceilings. Furthermore, inside those tombs, there is not enough oxygen to fuel the flame of a torch. But if they didn't use torches, how did they illuminate the dark rooms and long corridors?
Another theory was that sunlight was directed from outside with the help of copper mirrors. Some archaeologists tried to reproduce the technique proposed by this theory, but unfortunately they failed because after a few angles the sunlight dissipated completely, as the copper mirrors were not able to fully reflect the sunlight.
So how were the interiors of Egyptian buildings lit? The only solution we can think of is some artificial light source, for example an incandescent light bulb. In the underground crypt of Dendera, we find reliefs depicting such light bulbs.
Classical Egyptologists had to find an explanation at all costs, even the most banal one, for the Dendera depictions. According to classical archaeology, it is not possible that these were electrical devices.
According to these scholars, the depictions represent a lotus flower and the lines that surround it and which seem to give shape to a light bulb, actually represent the scent of the lotus flower. Paradoxically, the simpler explanation is that the Egyptians had discovered electric current and had learned one of the possible ways to use it.
Also because the operating principle of an incandescent light bulb is not as complicated as one might think: an electric current is needed to pass through a metallic material which, when heated, emits light radiation. The filament of our light bulbs is made of tungsten which, when the current passes, heats up to produce very intense light radiation.
How could the ancient Egyptians have used something resembling a modern-day light bulb without having access to electricity, which would not be discovered until thousands of years later? This is only true if we ignore what scientists call the “Baghdad Battery.”
The Baghdad Battery
The Baghdad Battery is an artifact dating back to the Parthian dynasty (150 BC–226 AD) in Persia, and probably discovered in 1936 near the village of Khujut Rabu, near Baghdad, Iraq. The object became known to the public only in 1938, when the German Wilhelm König, director of the National Museum of Iraq, found it in the collection of the institution he directed.
Scholars today believe it impossible that the ancients used electricity or light bulbs, so when they look at the dozen examples of this ancient battery found in Iraq, the only theory they propose is that the ancients used them to electrically plate jewelry metal.
Two leading proponents of the Ancient Astronaut Theory, Jason Martell and Giorgio A. Tsoukalos, using a modern reproduction of the Baghdad battery, have demonstrated how this ancient accumulator is capable of generating usable low voltages.
Basically, they took a jar of clay, a material found naturally in the southern Iraq region. Then they used a small copper gasket with a small asphalt plug wrapped around an iron rod.
Assembled in this way and combined with a weak acid such as vinegar, orange juice or wine, this device is capable of generating an electrical charge.
The idea that ancient civilizations knew about electricity and used it is now an accepted archaeological fact. In our civilization, we know that about 200 years ago, Benjamin Franklin and other scientists began to experiment with electric current with simple devices. We now have evidence that, over 3,000 years ago, other people were experimenting with electrical devices.
The Bird of Saqqara
In Saqqara, Egypt, stands the famous step pyramid of King Joser. With an age of more than 4 thousand years, it is the oldest of the 97 pyramids of Egypt. Saqqara is also famous for being one of the oldest funerary complexes in Egypt, earning it the nickname “City of the Dead”.
It is here that in 1891 some French archaeologists brought to light an ancient tomb containing the remains of Pa-di-Imen, a court official from the 3rd century BC. Among the various finds, a small wooden model of what appears to be a bird, near a papyrus on which "I want to fly" was written.
The artifact is sent to the Cairo museum where the authorities place it together with other bird statuettes. There it remained, without attracting particular attention, until 1969 when the Egyptologist Khalil Messiha, examining the collection of birds, did not notice that in the Saqqara bird there was something very different from the others.
On the one hand it would look like a bird, with the typical eyes and beak of a bird. On the other hand, the wings are not those of a bird, in fact they are shaped downwards and their thickness tends to become thinner towards the end. It's a very modern aerodynamic design.
Finally, birds do not have a rudder as they do not need one due to their aerodynamic conformation, therefore it is thought that this artifact does not represent a bird, but a flying machine, an airplane!
So, did the ancient Egyptians know how to fly? In 2006, aviation and aerodynamics expert Simon Sanderson built a scale model of the Saqqara bird, five times larger than the original, to test the possibility that it was actually an airplane.
Well, by placing the scale model in a wind tunnel, Senderson realized that the Saqqara Bird is capable of flight. Tests show that the artifact is a small-scale replica of a highly developed glider and is similar to designs used today.
Some computer models also confirm the Saqqara Bird's suitability for flight. But there is another problem to consider: if the glider was able to fly, how did the launch occur?
Today a tow plane is used, which drags the glider into the air and then releases it once it reaches the necessary altitude. How did the ancient Egyptians make the Saqqara bird fly?
Some scholars hypothesize that the glider was pushed into the area with the help of a powerful catapult, capable of projecting the glider to high altitude. Egyptian archaeologists have confirmed that ancient Egyptians possessed the technical capabilities to build such a device.
Even today, one of the systems used by glider enthusiasts is to launch themselves into the air with the aid of elastic cords, using a principle similar to that of the catapult.
But if the Saqqara Bird can fly, how did the ancient Egyptians acquire similar technology? According to Ancient Astronaut Theorists, the Saqqara Bird is one of the most relevant proofs of the fact that in the past, ancient alien travelers met our ancestors and transmitted culture, technology and knowledge, passing from a primitive culture to a more highly developed.
But could the Saqqara Bird, like the Antikythera Machine, the Dendera Lamps and the Baghdad Battery, also be the last symbol of an ancestral antediluvian human civilization, destroyed in some cosmic cataclysm thousands of years ago?
The survivors of this "Atlantean" civilization could have transmitted knowledge and culture to primitive post-diluvian generations, in an attempt to rebuild human civilization. All these possibilities greatly change our point of view on ancient civilizations.
