The Electrical Knowledge of Ancient Civilizations
Has electricity always existed, and was it merely discovered rather than invented?
Until 700 BCE, it was taught in schools that the Earth was spherical and, along with other planets of the same shape, revolved around the Sun—thus, the heliocentric system was known. By around 300 CE, however, teachings claimed that the Earth was flat and at the center of the solar system, and advocating the Earth's sphericity was considered heretical.
Over a thousand years, many things can happen, but not enough to justify the regression of a civilization's knowledge—unless a catastrophic event, a widespread war, or a period of chaos and terror caused the loss of scientific understanding. A dramatic event of unknown nature might have pushed humanity to forget what had been known, perhaps for millennia.
When a new discovery is presented to us, and we look into our past, we often realize that the ancients were already aware of it. The new knowledge we acquire is frequently found in ancient documents, presented as myths or legends, revealing that there was a time when the scientific knowledge of earlier civilizations was vast and profound.
Electricity, for example, was widely understood. According to historical records, the Etruscans are said to have passed this knowledge to the Romans.
Titus Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus attribute to Numa Pompilius the ability to summon Jupiter’s fire—a ritual or experiment designed to draw lightning from the god. They recount how Tullus Hostilius, lacking skill, died by lightning while attempting to replicate the "ritual." According to Ovid, Numa Pompilius kept an eternal flame burning in the temple he constructed.
We learn that Porsenna rid his kingdom of a monster called "Volt" by striking it with a violent electrical discharge.
It was Etruscan custom to protect houses from lightning by surrounding them with white bryony plants, a vine believed to repel electrical discharges. The Temple of Juno had a roof covered with sharp-edged metal blades—specifically, twenty-five iron rods. The roof of the Temple of Jerusalem was similarly protected, and historical accounts mention that its golden roof was connected to underground caverns by metal pipes affixed to the gilding. Notably, no lightning is recorded to have struck it.
Ammianus Marcellinus, a 4th-century historian, writes that the Magi could preserve fire that fell from the sky.
In the Oupnekhat of the Hindus, it is written that "to know fire, the sun, the moon, and lightning is to know three-quarters of the science of God."
Ctesias, a Greek physician (400 BCE), describes "metal swords" in Egypt placed with their tips facing upward to neutralize thunderstorms. At that time, it was known in India that placing a pointed iron rod at the base of a fountain, with its tip directed upward and anchored to the ground, could repel lightning and hurricanes.
Benjamin Franklin was not the first man to invent the lightning rod, just as Edison and Tesla were not the first to harness and distribute electricity.
In 1857, Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, a controversial foreigner for Egypt who nonetheless honored him with the title of "Pasha" and appointed him director of the Boulaq Museum (now the Cairo Museum), discovered in the underground chambers of the Temple of Dendera bas-reliefs depicting what appeared to be gigantic light bulbs.
Dendera is located in Upper Egypt on the left bank of the Nile, about 60 kilometers north of Luxor. The Temple of the goddess Hathor is a massive quadrangular structure measuring approximately 81 by 45 meters. Three-fifths of the temple are below ground, consisting of 12 crypts with bas-reliefs that remained incomprehensible until Edison commercialized the first rudimentary incandescent lamp in 1878.
In 1934, another French Egyptologist, Émile Chassinat, photographed the bas-reliefs originally documented by Mariette. In the 1980s, two Austrian writers, Peter Krassa and Reinald Habeck, came across Chassinat's photos in a library. Intrigued, they traveled to Dendera to verify if what they had seen was real. The photographs of the crypts, published in their book The Light of the Pharaohs, leave little doubt.
Even as early as 1934, those images could have been interpreted for what they represented. Admittedly, they may have fallen into the "forgotten annals of time," but by the 1980s, when Krassa and Habeck rediscovered them, any Egyptologist could have drawn the necessary conclusions.
There is a "cover-up" underway in Dendera. German traveler Peter Ehlebracht investigated the case and, in his book Haltet die Pyramiden Fest (Hold the Pyramids Tight), detailed the extensive archaeological looting Egypt has suffered, highlighting the "holes" in official narratives. Regarding the theft of Dendera’s bas-reliefs in 1973, Ehlebracht was warned to remain silent.
We agree with Ehlebracht that removing stone slabs several meters wide cannot be accomplished with shovels and picks. The transport was also concealed. The operation took months, requiring the cooperation of custodians and authorities. Ehlebracht's investigations suggest that fragments of Dendera’s temple were taken to the Louvre archives.
Few figures remain carved on the walls. What we saw in a documentary within a narrow corridor (1.20 meters wide and 4.60 meters long) appears to be an "accessible crypt," likely the only surviving section because working in such a cramped environment would be difficult.
The crypts depict priests holding a lotus flower, a symbol of enlightenment, whose stem is connected to a container (an energy accumulator?) on which the air god Shu supports a large glass vessel shaped like an elongated lamp. Emerging from the lotus flower, this lamp contains a serpent rising on its tail (Uraeus). The serpent appears to hiss, symbolizing an electric discharge, the Ka, or life force. Beneath the lamp is a Djed pillar, a symbol of energy, resembling modern electrical insulators, with its arms extending into the lamp. Standing in front of the lamp is the god Thoth, bearer of light, holding two knives to signal danger.
Essentially, these are large lamps with an internal filament represented by the serpent, which suggests both danger and the crackling sound of an electrical discharge.
The hieroglyphic inscriptions at Dendera were analyzed by W. Waiktus, a physicist and philosopher who graduated with a thesis on their meaning in 1991. His interpretation confirms that the bas-reliefs depict electrotechnical processes reminiscent of the device Roentgen used to produce X-rays in 1895.
In 1990, engineer Walter Garn reconstructed the device in a laboratory, demonstrating that it was indeed an incandescent lamp. In another intriguing bas-relief, Garn identified a depiction of a galvanic device. This raises questions about the so-called "serpent stones" found not only in Dendera but also in Edfu and Kom Ombo.
It is speculated that the walls of other crypts in the Temple of Hathor might have depicted highly advanced technologies, perhaps more advanced than those currently achieved by our civilization. Given that the bas-reliefs have been hidden, it is reasonable to think their revelation might compel us to rewrite certain chapters of human history.
It is certain, then, that the Egyptians knew about electricity—but they were not alone.
Numerous classical authors describe stones providing light at night in the Temple of Hadad (Jupiter) in Baalbek. Plutarch wrote of witnessing a perpetual lamp in the Temple of Jupiter that neither wind nor water could extinguish. St. Augustine also claimed to have seen a similar lamp in an Egyptian temple dedicated to Isis.
Byzantine historian Cedrinus noted seeing one of these perpetual lamps in Edessa. Lucian of Samosata (120–180 CE) described a jewel embedded in a golden head representing Hera in Hierapolis, Syria, which emitted such a powerful light that the temple appeared illuminated by a multitude of candles.
In 170 CE, Pausanias observed a golden lamp in the Temple of Athena that could provide light for an entire year without needing to be refilled with oil. In tombs near Memphis, perpetually burning lamps were found in sealed rooms. These flames reportedly extinguished when exposed to air.
Father Kircher, a researcher and explorer, wrote of visiting underground chambers near Memphis where such lamps burned but went out when brought into the open air. Other witnesses reported seeing similar lamps in temples in India.
The Bishop of Verona (Italy), Ermolao Barbaro, who lived in the 1400s and was known for his translations of Aesop’s fables, described numerous discoveries of perpetual lamps. One notable find occurred in Padua in 1450, when a farmer working his field uncovered a large terracotta urn containing two vases—one gold, the other silver. The silver vase held a clear liquid of unknown composition, referred to as "alchemical liquid." Within the urn was another terracotta vase in which a lamp burned. A Latin inscription on the urn urged potential thieves to respect the offering of Maximus Olivius to Pluto.
Thomas William, in his book We Are Not the First, narrates the discovery of the Mummy of the Via Appia, identified as Tullia, the daughter of Cicero. Unearthed on April 18, 1485, by workers along the Via Appia, this discovery is mentioned in chronicles of the time. The body lay in a transparent, fatty, fragrant liquid of unknown composition that preserved it perfectly. At its feet was a lamp that had remained lit for 1,500 years but extinguished when exposed to sunlight. The girl's body was displayed for two days at the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome, drawing an estimated 20,000 visitors in one day. Alarmed by the uproar, Pope Innocent VIII ordered her body buried in a secret location. Only a drawing by an unknown witness remains.
In 1401, the tomb of Pallas, son of the Trojan King Evander, was discovered, with a perpetual lamp burning above the deceased’s head. The lamp had remained lit for 2,600 years but extinguished when its liquid was spilled.
English historian Cambden wrote in 1586 about an eternal lamp found in the tomb of the father of Emperor Constantine. He also described other lamps discovered during the dissolution of the Catholic Church and major monasteries in 1539 by Henry VIII. During the plundering of ecclesiastical property, these lamps were dismissed as papal relics.
In 1601, explorer Barco Centenera described the city of Gran Moxo in Mato Grosso, Brazil, near the sources of the Paraguay River and the Seven Lakes region. At the entrance of the House of the Lord, there were two massive towers separated by a staircase. To the right, two live jaguars were tied to a column with golden rings. Atop the column, at a height of 7.75 meters (25 feet), was a large luminous moon that illuminated the lake, dispersing darkness and shadows.
In 1681, near Grenoble, Swiss mercenary Du Praz discovered a strange lamp burning in a tomb. The lamp was taken to a monastery where it continued to burn for several months until a monk extinguished it.
A 1963 United Press dispatch reported a village south of the Maoke Mountains illuminated by "moons," which shone intensely, either suspended in the air or placed atop columns. These spherical lights, approximately three meters in diameter, emitted a neon-like glow and began shining at sunset. Similar globes were seen by explorers in several villages in Papua New Guinea, near Mount Wilhelmina (also called Wilhelm).
In the 1960s, in the village of Trikora Gunung in western Iran, lighting systems based on enormous stone spheres mounted on tall pillars were reported. Resembling suspended moons, they emitted light. Explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett mentioned these cold lights in cities in Mato Grosso, Brazil, between the Xingú and Araguaia rivers, and considered them part of the knowledge possessed by the ancestors of those peoples.
The Mandanas, a group of white Native Americans, recount an era when their ancestors lived across the ocean in houses with inextinguishable lights—possibly a reference to Atlantis.
Father Regis Evariste Luc (1813–1860) claimed to have examined one of these "ever-burning magical lamps" in a subterranean Naga village in the Himalayas.
Explorer Harold T. Wilkins found a phosphorescent inscription south of Arequipa, Peru. According to him, the summit of Mount Ylo emitted a strange light of unknown origin. In Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, legends abound of luminous globes that turned night into day.
Australian Idriess wrote that tribal chiefs in the virgin forest near Torres Strait raised a round stone mounted in a bamboo frame called Booya, which emitted blue flashes of light, creating the impression of magical illumination.
Members of a Japanese secret sect affiliated with Shintoism, On Take Jinsa, celebrated fire ceremonies and guarded the secret of "fire that does not burn." Many Japanese claimed to know magicians capable of creating this fire.
In the sacred book of the Quiché people, the Popol Vuh, is described a device used to illuminate the underground world of Ximbala. It resembled a bone with a pointed tip that emitted green light, akin to the glow sticks used by modern speleologists.
The Agastya Samhita, a Brahmin manuscript preserved in the library of Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, India, contains instructions for generating electricity. Compiled by the sage Agastya, the manuscript describes a battery-like setup:
"Place a well-cleaned copper plate in a ceramic pot, cover it with a layer of copper sulfate, and fill the rest with wet sawdust. Insert a zinc sheet coated with mercury amalgam on top of the sawdust. If you connect a copper wire to the plate and avoid contact with the zinc sheet, a state of energy named Mitra-Varuna will form, capable of splitting water into Pranavayu and Udanavayu (hydrogen and oxygen). If you arrange a series of such pots, you will obtain great energy."
The Agastya is also called Kumbhayoni, derived from Kumbha, meaning "pitcher," referencing the vessels used to create these batteries.
In 1938, archaeologist Wilhelm König, director of the Baghdad Museum, discovered a crate of artifacts from excavations in Khujut Rabuah, southeast of Baghdad, dating to 250 BCE. The artifacts included clay jars coated with asphalt and containing iron rods encased in copper cylinders. The jars, 15 cm (6 inches) tall with 10 cm (4 inches) cylinders, featured soldered lead-tin walls (60/40 alloy). The rods were suspended in the cylinders, sealed with copper disks and bitumen, and showed signs of corrosion, indicating potential use as galvanic cells.
After World War II, Willard Gray, an expert at the General Electric High Voltage Laboratory in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, replicated the ancient jars and created a battery generating about 1.5 volts.
The Berlin Museum houses large jars containing copper cylinders, metal rods, and bitumen seals, discovered in the ruins of Ctesiphon, the ancient capital of the Parthians. According to TV producer and writer Landsburg, the ancients stimulated the pituitary gland to enhance intellectual abilities using small electrical discharges. This, he argues, explains the numerous 1.5-volt batteries found in Iraq.
Eliphas Levi, whose real name was Alphonse Louis Costant, recounts in his Histoire de la Magie how a man named Jechiele demonstrated a self-illuminating lamp to Louis IX in the 13th century, which radiated light around it. The secret of this lamp was never revealed. Levi also described the extraordinary abilities of Egyptian priests who could "shroud their temples in clouds" or make them glow with "supernatural brightness." During the day, the temples were enveloped in darkness, while at night, they were brightly illuminated. They inspired fear among the faithful with lamps that miraculously lit themselves, sacred statues suddenly bathed in blinding light, and a distant, ominous rumbling.
Levi also mentions a mysterious Amazonian figure, known as a great magician called Elipas Levi, who reportedly descended from the sky to heal the sick with "magic of water and fire." Local shamans rebelled against him, and Levi commanded his serpent to vomit fire, incinerating forests and boiling rivers before ascending to the heavens on the serpent's back in a vortex of fire.
Archaeological findings confirm that women in Mesopotamia adorned themselves with gold-plated jewelry. Explorer Marcel Homet, in his studies of Chan Chan, recounted finding copper artifacts plated with gold and silver—achievements only possible with electrolysis.
The Ngwenya Mine, active 43,000 years ago, was used to extract hematite for cosmetics. A 4th-century Chinese general, Show Chu, was buried with a metallic ornament containing 5% magnesium, 10% copper, and 85% aluminum—a discovery remarkable because aluminum extraction involves a complex electrolytic process discovered only in 1808.
It is said that Emperor Tsin Shi (259–210 BCE) possessed a mirror 1.22 meters wide and 1.76 meters high, which made internal organs and bones visible when a person stood before it.
J. Alden Mason, curator of the University of Pennsylvania's American Antiquities Museum, reported finding platinum jewelry on Peru’s Mont Alban plateau. He confirmed that Peru's ancient civilizations used metal welding techniques based on resin and fused metallic salts—a foundation of electrochemistry. Platinum melts at approximately 1,800°C and is extracted through complex chemical processes involving aqua regia.
Between 1991 and 1993, explorations in Russia, between the Narada, Kozhim, Balbanyu, Utvisty, and Lapkhevozh rivers, uncovered spiral-shaped objects made of various metals, including copper, tungsten, and molybdenum, at depths of 3 to 12 meters. These findings, studied by the Russian Academy of Sciences and institutions in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Helsinki, were determined to be highly advanced technological products resembling microminiature devices used in modern medicine.
Dating tests placed these objects between 20,000 and 318,000 years old. Even if they were "only" 20,000 years old, it raises the question of which ancient civilization could have created such intricate microfiligree objects, achievable today only with advanced technology.
An ornament on the gold breastplate of the Mixtec god of death, discovered at Monte Alban, resembles a modern electronic circuit. Similarly, Teotihuacan's Pyramid of the Sun contained thick sheets of mica—an insulating material—hidden between its upper levels. The mica, originating from Brazil 3,200 kilometers away, suggests deliberate selection by the pyramid's builders.
The Ark of the Covenant, constructed from acacia wood and overlaid with gold, resembles an electrical capacitor. Positioned in dry areas with natural magnetic fields of 500–600 volts per vertical meter, the Ark could have charged via its golden crown, behaving like a Leyden jar. The Levites, its caretakers, were the only ones allowed to touch it. Its transportation involved poles with gold-plated rings. The Ark "blazed with light and fire," levitated objects, brought down mountains (Jericho), diverted rivers (Jordan), devastated armies, and delivered deadly shocks to the unwary.
In the First Book of Samuel, it is written: "Send back the Ark of the God of Israel (...) terror had gripped Ekron (...) Those who were spared from death were afflicted with tumors (...)." And again: "The people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley when they saw the Ark and rejoiced to see it (...) The Levites placed the Ark on a large stone (...) But the Lord struck down the people of Beth Shemesh because they had looked inside the Ark, and He killed seventy men."
Moses had received advanced knowledge of chemistry and physics from the Egyptian priests, which he might have applied. The Ark of the Covenant was not only a source of energy but also a radio transmitter. Moses communicated with the Lord by placing his face near the wings of the Cherubim above the cover, the Mercy Seat.
Analyzing the Old Testament, some have speculated that Moses was connected to extraterrestrial travelers, with the Kabbalah providing clues. It mentions Metatron, the leader of the Yorde Merkavah (see Merkavah, the throne chariot of God, Qumran Scroll 4Q SI 40), described as celestial travelers who occasionally descended to Earth in their flying chariots and who knew all the secrets of the starry heavens.
Rabbi Simon Ben Jachai recorded that the Kabbalah’s authors always anticipated the arrival of superior beings from the cosmos without assigning a specific date.
For objectivity, we should briefly discuss some researchers’ theories regarding Moses' identity. Freud identified Moses with Akhenaten, while Laurence Gardner, an international genealogist and prior of the "Celtic Church’s Sacred Kindred" of St. Columba, identified him as Aminadab, son of Tiye. Gardner described Aminadab as a boy abandoned to the Nile, raised by the half-brother of an Egyptian princess, and educated by Ra’s priests. In Thebes, he introduced the concept of a faceless, omnipotent God under the name Aten, equivalent to the Hebrew Adonai ("Lord" in Phoenician). Aminadab changed his name to Akhenaten ("servant of Aten"). When exiled from Egypt, he took refuge in Sinai, where his followers regarded him as their rightful heir and called him "Moses" or "Mosis" (meaning "heir born of"). Egyptian records indicate that "Moses-Akhenaten" led his people from Pi-Ramesses to Lake Timash through Sinai, including families from Jacob's lineage.
Returning to the Ark of the Covenant, it was housed in the famous Tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, constructed during the Exodus. Strict rules governed access to its interior to protect human lives (Leviticus 6:1-4):
"Do not enter the sanctuary beyond the veil in front of the Mercy Seat on the Ark at any time, or you will die, because I appear in a cloud over the Mercy Seat. Wear the sacred linen tunic, linen undergarments on the body, a linen sash, and a linen turban... First, bathe in water, and then dress."
From Exodus, we learn about the design of the turban:
"You shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, as one engraves a seal: ‘Holy to the Lord.’ Attach it with a violet ribbon so it remains at the front of the turban. It will be on Aaron's forehead to make the Israelites acceptable to the Lord."
The garments covered the body from head to toe. Sensitive parts, like the head and arms, were anointed with protective oil:
"Take the finest spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, 250 shekels of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of fragrant cane, 500 shekels of cassia, and a hin of olive oil. Make it into a sacred anointing oil (...) Use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the Ark, the table, its utensils, the lampstand, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offerings (...) Anoint Aaron and his sons to consecrate them as priests."
Modern parallels can be drawn to protective suits worn in nuclear facilities. Skin ulcers resembling tumors and vomiting—symptoms described in the Bible—are typical of radiation burns.
The High Priest’s robe was designed with safety in mind:
"Make the robe entirely of violet. It will have an opening at the center for the head, with a woven collar to prevent tearing. Around the hem, make pomegranates of violet and scarlet, alternating with golden bells. When he enters and exits the holy place, the sound of the bells will be heard, so he does not die."
The bells served as signals to Levites outside the Tabernacle. If they stopped ringing for an extended period, those outside would know something had gone wrong. Studies of the Kabbalah by Sassoon and Rodney confirm these precautions. According to the Zohar 3:67, anyone entering the tent wore a gold chain on their ankle, enabling other priests to retrieve the body if needed.
These accounts attest to the technological knowledge of the ancients. The Dendera bas-reliefs reveal how ancient artists could work in tombs and underground spaces—sometimes 100 meters deep—without sunlight, oil lamps, or torches. No traces of soot or burnt oil residue have been found on walls or floors.
To quote Charles Fort, a writer of the unusual, we are dealing with "damned facts"—facts, not coincidences—that demand acknowledgment, even if they allow for varied interpretations.
If an event once disrupted the natural order, forcing humanity to regress in its knowledge, and those in power selectively rebuilt systems, it is time to reveal that event. It’s time to admit that some truths were suppressed, perhaps in good faith, but also that some individuals took advantage of these circumstances. Humanity, with its selfishness, fears, and intrigues, has remained unchanged for millennia. But how different might the world be if these truths had been disclosed instead of hidden?
