12 Advanced Ancient Technologies That Should NOT Exist

A look at several advanced ancient technologies that should not have existed until thousands of years later. Where did they come from? Who invented them? Why are they isolated in history?

These advanced ancient technologies are artefacts found out-of-place in archaeological digs, objects that indicate ancients used advanced technology, and artefacts that defy any explanation - yet they're sitting there in museums, stubbornly contradicting accepted history. With countless wars and no documentation in the modern language, we lost a lot of knowledge about the previous civilisations, so now we are forced to either rewrite history or sit head-scratching and admit that "no one really knows."

Let's examine each one in more detail and see if we can get to the bottom of these eternal mysteries.

The Baghdad Battery from Iraq

Electricity is commonly believed to have been discovered during the 17th century. In 1600, English physician William Gilbert used the Latin "electricus" to describe the force that certain substances exert when rubbed against each other. A few years later, another English scientist, Thomas Browne, wrote several books, and he first used the word "electricity" to describe his investigations based on Gilbert's work. In 1752, Ben Franklin experimented with a kite, a key, and a storm. This proved that lightning and tiny electric sparks were the same things; thus, electricity was born.

Would you believe electricity was discovered and used as early as 250 BC and AD 224? The Baghdad Battery, or Parthian Battery, discovered in 1938 in what is now modern Khujut Rabu, Iraq, is a ceramic pot, a copper tube, and an iron rod. Its origin and purpose remain unclear, and further evidence is needed to explain its purpose. Some researchers hypothesised that the object functioned as a galvanic cell, possibly used for electroplating or some electrotherapy, but there is no electro-gilded object known from this period.

The Baghdad batteries could conduct an electric current because many replicas have been made. Modern replicas can produce voltages from 0.8 to nearly two volts. Making an electric current requires two metals with different electro potentials and an ion-carrying solution, known as an electrolyte, to ferry the electrons between them. Connected in series, a set of batteries could produce a much higher voltage, though no wires have ever been found to prove this was the case.

The Lycurgus Cup of Rome

The Lycurgus Cup is a 4th-century Roman glass cage cup. It is remarkable both for the method of fabrication and the exceptional workmanship involved. But that is not why it is on this list. The Lycurgus Cup is made of dichroic glass, which shows a different colour depending on whether or not light is passing through it; red when lit from behind and green when lit from in front.

The dichroic effect is achieved by making the glass with tiny proportions of nanoparticles of gold and silver dispersed in colloidal form throughout the glass material. It is among the most technically sophisticated glass objects produced before the modern era. Research into how glass makes this dichroic effect has led researchers to believe that the Roman artisans were nanotechnology pioneers. They'd impregnated the glass with particles of silver and gold, ground down until they were as small as 50 nanometres in diameter, less than one-thousandth the size of a grain of table salt. The exact mixture of the precious metals suggests the Romans knew what they were doing.

The Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca Head in Mexico

The mysterious Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head was discovered in 1933, and according to researchers, it is a fragment of a larger figure. It was discovered in a pre-Columbian tomb near Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca in the valley of Toluca by archaeologist Jose Garcia-Payen. According to the first tests, scholars believe the figure is of Roman origin. This archaeological site was intact, eliminating the possibility of accidental contamination. How did a Roman artefact find its way to Prehispanic Mexico?

When the artefact was discovered, there was no dating method for that type of material, so it wasn't until 1995 when a thermoluminescence test was performed by P. Schaaf and GA Wagner in the "FS Archaeometrie unit" of Heidelberg, Germany, placing it between the 9th century BC and the middle of the 13th century AD.

Since the figure is much older than the archaeological site where it was discovered, researchers have speculated that it got there by an ancient route from Asia to America brought by ancient Hindu or Chinese ships. The only thing that contradicts this theory is that the artefact is too fragile to survive a millennium of travel.

No one can reach a definitive conclusion on the matter. The truth is, the mysterious Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head is an enigma, and even though there have been many theories proposed explaining the mysterious artefact and its origin, none of them can be corroborated, and the Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head remains a mysterious out-of-place artefact.

Is it possible that we know very little about our history and that there have been countless visitors to the Americas before the arrival of the conquistadores?

The Antikythera Mechanism of Greece

Off the coast of the island of Antikythera, divers discovered a wreck which was to yield a priceless collection of Greek statues and other items. The yield from further dives during 1900-01 included an encrusted bronze lump, whose astronomical significance was only recognised some eight months after excavations had terminated when it was found to have split apart. Containing some 30 gear wheels, and now known as the Antikythera Mechanism, this device is an order of magnitude more complicated than any surviving mechanism from the following millennium. There is no surviving precursor.

The Antikythera Mechanism has been dated to the second century BC. After much investigation, researchers have discovered that the mechanism is an ancient computer capable of tracking astronomical movements with remarkable precision. The computer could follow the moon's and the sun's movements through the Zodiac, predict eclipses and even recreate the irregular orbit of the moon. They also believe it may also have predicted the positions of the planets. No other civilisation is known to have created anything as complicated for another thousand years.

Roman Concrete

Modern concrete - used in everything from roads to buildings to bridges - can break down in as few as 50 years. But over a thousand years after the Western Roman Empire crumbled to dust, its concrete structures still stand. The recipe has been known for a long time, but what is unknown is the exact mixture and method for producing it.

As laid down by Roman engineer Marcus Vitruvius in BC 30, the ancient recipe for mortar called for a concoction of volcanic ash, lime, and seawater mixed with volcanic rocks and spread into wooden moulds that were then immersed in more seawater.

If these ingredients were mixed in the manner of modern concrete and placed in a structure, the result certainly would not pass the test of the ages.

So why do structures built only a few years ago look like they've been weathering the elements for centuries when buildings thousands of years old, like many parts of the Pantheon or Trajan's Markets in Rome, look like they're only a few years old?

Damascus Steel

When the Crusaders reached the Middle East in the 11th century, they discovered swords made of a metal that could slice a hair in half in mid-air, and yet it was strong enough to strike fear into even the bravest and most persistent warrior. The swords were extraordinary because the blades remained devastatingly sharp and tough through battle after battle.

Knowledge of the legendary metal spread, and it became known to the Europeans as the Damascus steel, named after the capital of Syria. Sometime in the 18th century, the formula for Damascus steel was lost, and the original production method remains an ancient secret.

Damascus steel was the forged steel comprising the blades of swords smithed in the Middle East from ingots of wootz steel imported from India and Sri Lanka. These swords are characterised by distinctive patterns of banding and mottling reminiscent of flowing water.

The Arabs introduced the Indian wootz steel to Damascus, where a weapons industry thrived. From the 3rd century to the 17th century, India was shipping steel ingots to the Middle East. By 1750, production of Damascus swords gradually declined because firearms replaced swords, and there was less demand for metal. Eventually, the knowledge and the process were lost to metalsmiths.

Many modern attempts have been made to reproduce the metal, but no one has succeeded due to differences in raw materials and manufacturing techniques. "Modern Damascus" is made from several types of steel and iron slices welded together to form a billet, and currently, the term "Damascus" (although technically incorrect) is widely accepted to describe modern pattern welded steel blades in the trade. The patterns vary depending on how the smith works the billet.

Stone Spheres of Costa Rica

Found deep in the jungles of Costa Rica in the 1930s were 300 nearly perfectly round stone balls. They varied from a few inches in diameter to seven feet across, weighing 16 tons. Scientists aren't sure who made them, how old they are or what purpose they might have had.

Many stones seem startlingly round, and most are not as perfect in shape as they might appear to the casual observer. The best measurements were made by Lothrop in the 1950s, but he was hampered in his observations by the size of the larger spheres and the difficulty of getting a tape measure around the spheres still half buried in the ground. Also, not all the balls are perfectly smooth, and many show evidence of the tools used to make them.

While most legitimate archaeologists have no doubt the stones are the work of ancient indigenous people, wild stories have grown up about the spheres, suggesting that they are connected with aliens or the lost continent of Atlantis. Sceptics argue that primitive people with basic, non-metallic tools could not possibly have made such perfectly round and smooth stones.

Even though the stones are neither perfectly round nor smooth, creating them must still have been a huge effort. Most of them are composed of granodiorite, a hard, igneous rock that comes from an outcropping in the foothills of the nearby Talamanca mountains.

The Chorotega Indians are often cited as making the stone spheres but lived further north from where the balls were found. We don't know exactly who created these globes of rock, but it likely was the ancestors of the people who lived in the region at the time of the Spanish conquest in the 16th century.

What were these stones' spheres used for? Nobody knows.

Sacsayhuaman Stones in Peru

The builders of ancient Sacsayhuaman left behind precisely cut blocks of stone that have challenged our modern-day builders in many ways. How did our ancestors cut, lift, transport, and place stones weighing hundreds of tons into position? Who were the ancient builders of Sacsayhuaman? How did they precisely manipulate granite, one of the hardest materials to work with, with such ease?

The method used to match a stone's shape precisely with the adjacent stones has been the focus of much speculation and debate. Various theories include stone softening using a mysterious liquid derived from a plant, mineral disaggregation from the heat generated from large sun mirrors, and even extra-terrestrial intervention. The surface of the blocks shows evidence of being exposed to high temperatures, which makes them appear glossy and smooth. The stones are packed so closely that grass, steel or vegetation cannot get between them, and no mortar was used in their construction. That is why they remain a mystery.

The Iron Pillar of India

The Iron Pillar of Delhi, also known as the Ashoka Pillar, is 23 feet 8 inches high (7.2 metres) and 16 inches in diameter. It weighs over 6 tons and is made of 98% wrought iron. It was constructed by "King Chandra", probably Chandragupta I, and is currently standing in the Qutb complex at Mehrauli in Delhi, India. The pillar is inscribed; the oldest is in Sanskrit, and historians date the markings to 375-415 AD.

The purpose of the Iron Pillar of Delhi is one of its many mysteries. Some say it was a Flagstaff made for the king mentioned in the inscription. Others say it was a sundial at its original home in Madhya Pradesh. Why it is no longer in Madhya Pradesh is yet another mystery. There is no evidence of who moved the pillar 1,000 years ago, how it was moved or even why.

The biggest and most talked about mystery regarding the Iron Pillar of Delhi is how it has gone seemingly untarnished for this long. Several theories have been put forward to explain this phenomenon. These theories fall into two main categories - material factors (favoured by Indian investigators) and environmental factors (favoured by foreign investigators).

The iron itself has a high level of phosphorus; when combined with the iron oxides, the film is formed as the weather goes from wet to dry. The smiths of the time did not add lime as people do today, and they used high-phosphorus wood, which is why the mineral levels are so high. The theory of how the processing, the structure, and the properties of the iron affect the pillar is called the "Mixed Potential Theory". Scientific analysis has shown that these three factors work together to form a protective passive layer of rust on the Iron Pillar of Delhi. As a result, the pillar does not undergo further corrosion and appears to have not rusted over a thousand years.

Another mystery is why the pillar hasn't rusted away after 1600 years. Like so many other mysterious objects, the Iron Pillar does not give up its secrets easily; sadly, some may be lost to time forever.

London Hammer

The London Hammer (also known as the "London Artifact") is a name for a hammer made of iron and wood that was found in London, Texas, in 1936. You may be wondering what's wrong with a hammer found in Texas. Hammers have been used for centuries. Carbon dating of the iron "showed inconclusive dates ranging from the present to 700 years ago." Still nothing remarkable about that. What is remarkable is that the man-made tool is encased in a 400 million-year-old rock.

The hammer was purportedly found by a local couple, Max Hahn and his wife, while walking along the course of the Red Creek near London. They spotted a curious piece of loose rock with some wood embedded in it and took it home. A decade later, their son Max broke open the rock to find the concealed hammerhead.

The metal hammerhead is approximately 6 inches (15 centimetres) long and has a diameter of 1 in (25 mm), leading some to suggest that this hammer was not used for large projects but rather for fine work or soft metal. The hammer is stylistically consistent with typical American tools manufactured in the region in the late 1800s.

One possible explanation for the artefact is that the highly soluble minerals in the ancient limestone may have formed a concretion around the object via a common process (like that of a petrifying well), which often creates similar encrustations around fossils and other nuclei.

Saqqara Bird

This bird-shaped artefact dates back to around 200 BC and was found in Saqqara, Egypt. Nobody knows the purpose of the Saqqara Bird, but the more conventional theories suggest it might have been a child's toy, a weather vane or a decorative piece placed on the masts of boats during ceremonies. Yet, others, most notably Egyptian archaeologist and physician Khalil Messiha, claimed that ancient Egyptians had developed the first aircraft known to man.

The Sycamore wood bird supposedly represents a smaller version of a monoplane. Khalil added that a horizontal tailplane from the artefact had been lost. With it, the bird could function as a glider. It wouldn't have been uncommon for ancient Egyptians to place miniature versions of their technology in tombs. Most Egyptologists usually reject Khalil's claims. However, tests conducted by aerodynamics expert Simon Sanderson indicate that Khalil was right all along. He built a replica of the bird with a stabilising tailplane and factored in conditions similar to Saqqara in a wind tunnel. The bird performed unexpectedly well. Sanderson stated, "Over 2,000 years after the ancient Egyptians carved this mysterious bird, modern technology has proved beyond doubt that it could have flown".