Ancient technology

In the early years of the 20th century an artifact was recovered from a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. Dated to about 80BC, it was considered a mere artifact. However in 1971 research on the Antikythera Mechanism showed it to have an intricate arrangement of gears, dials and graded plates. One theory is that it was a computing device to work out the movement of the Sun and planets. If this idea is true, then the ancients had a degree of technology way above previously imagined. Mysterious mechanisms: This is further shown by a crystal skull found in 1927 belonging to the Maya civilisation of ancient Mexico. The skull is carved from a single block of quartz crystal. So perfect is the skull that it would have taken some 300 years to carve by known means of the time. If a light is placed below it, a prism in the mouth directs the light through the eyes, lighting up the skull. A further hint of advanced technology used by the ancients comes from the Baghdad Battery found in 1936. Said to be at least 2,000 years old, fruit juice was added to a replica and it produced half a volt of electricity. Archaeologist Flinders Petrie added to the controversy with his words on certain elements of ancient engineering. A most systematic and exacting man, he wasn’t prone to flights of fancy, but he noted grooves and inscriptions on pottery and other artifacts that could not have been produced by modern precision engineering techniques. Sounds good: Modern toolmaker Christopher Dunn suggested a possible explanation for such precision engineering.

He puts forward the possibility of the ancients using the vibrations produced by ultrasound. Just how sound could have been used is unknown, but as to its power, the singer Caruso was said to have shattered a wineglass by singing a certain note at the correct resonance. Could the ancients have had technology such as ultrasound that we know nothing about? Modern technology is based on certain principles discovered as we went along.