we tend to think of our ancestors as less smart versions of ourselves after all they didn't invent smartphones or the internet or toilet golf truly Visionary stuff but actually our ancestors were much smarter than many of us give them credit for and some things they created have baffled scientists for centuries from structures only Giants could have built to a computer that predates the age of Jesus it's time to take a look at some of the oldest technologies that even scientists can't [Music] explain Gadget Galore do you know what the very first computer looked like you're probably thinking back to the time of boxy monitors and wired mice that had rubber balls in them but computers existed before then and I mean hundreds of years before then we're talking about analog computers pre-digital devices that used the variation of an element and matched it up on a Model to help solve a problem think of a slide rule for example which allows the user to do quick multiplication and division that's a computer however the very first of these computers was way more impressive than a mere math device and it was created in more than 2,000 years ago this is the antia mechanism an ancient Greek computer with which could predict everything from the exact movements of the planets to the dates of each Olympic Games it's the oldest example of an analog computer ever discovered made around the 2 Century BCE remnants of this big bronze device were found inside a shipwreck off the coast of anti athera well now we know where it got the name from from 1901 onwards it's been subjected to all sorts of tests and scientists have desperately tried to figure out how it all works from what scientists do know it's made up of over 80 fragments possibly more which fit together to create 37 gears and two Dial Systems that they believe were made to track the Moon and the Sun the dials each have pins that follow their own spiral Groove like a needle on a record player it's assumed these were used to foresee each lunar and solar eclipse decades in advance the kind of thing we now rely on Google to tell us all of these fragments once came together to create a mechanism that looks something like this as you can see though the sheer amount of work that was needed to create it the accuracy to which it was measured and calculating the constants to predict these events without digital Aid is hard for scientists to Fathom even to this day while digital computers are much more advanced now at least the Greeks didn't have to worry about forgetting their passwords all the time the chameleon cup up it's no secret that the Romans were great adventur they were The Originators of paved roads concrete buildings aqueducts plumbing and even the Julian calendar without them Western Society wouldn't be anywhere near as advanced as it is today but one invention from this era has left scientists stumped the lerus cup it's a 4th Century Cup made from glass and it's completely captivating not because it looks pretty but because the Romans designed it to turn completely different colors depending on the light if the cup is lit from behind the front of it will turn a deep shade of red but light it up from the front and its color will magically become green pretty cool right it took the Romans much more than magic to produce this effect however they invented a type of glass called Doric glass which means two colors in Greek they did this by grinding down gold and silver until they dissolved into into a liquid producing a colloid but inside these metals are nanop particles nanop particles are matter so small you can't see them with the human eye they're 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair inside the Nano particles are electrons which vibrate when light hits the cup changing the color of the refracted light depending on the observer's position so it's these super tiny particles within the glass that creates the stunning two-tone effect but the thing is scientists don't know how they manag to master such an advanced technique especially since the Romans didn't have access to anything like microscopes and nanotechnology was only discovered in the 1970s for all we know Romans might have discovered it first and then perfected its use without even knowing it though that seems unlikely some believe the discovery of this nanotechnology was just a happy coincidence but whether it was intentional or not you can still Color Me impressed Giants in the sky have you ever wondered what a city of giants would look like everything would be so big it would be impossible for a tiny little human to live there but if you could visit a town occupied by Giants it would probably look something like oano this Incan site in Peru was likely built back in the mid-5th century and boy has it puzzled scientists among the many gigantic structures that make up oan Tao the Valley's ginormous steps are the most shocking with each step reaching up to 13 ft and with there being 150 steps in all there is no way they were made to be climbed by puny human legs scientists have trouble explaining how the Incans managed to create steps so much taller than themselves unlike today they didn't have forklifts and cranes to build larger than life structures so they've had to work out what they did use the most likely answer is that they had a system of ropes and pulleys to lift huge rocks over their heads but there's no way of knowing for sure some researchers believe that the steps aren't real steps at all though they may have been part of a palace complex for the emperor pakui the Incan ruler credited with rebuilding the entire Village others think they may have been Garden Terraces used to grow fruits and veg like modern Greenhouse houses I wonder if they ever grew any beant stocks giant City or not it's one of the most mindboggling impossible looking constructions in history nowadays it's taken on a new lease of Life as a tourist playground and its multiple Stone buildings Tower over every single visitor its Secrets however are still hidden somewhere deep within the Rocks if you want to take a big step though why not hit those like And subscribe buttons down below you never know what else you might discover on my Channel all done great now what have we got next volts from AAS from a glance these objects look like old junk right what's so smart about a ceramic pot containing a tube of copper and a rod of iron well what if I told you that this is the making of world changing energy source it was discovered in 1936 but it's so much older than that the artifacts discovered in Baghdad Iraq have been dated between 200 and 600 AD when the Roman Empire Ruled the Land tests on the iron and copper cylinders reveal that a liquid was once inside the jar such as wine or vinegar using an acidic liquid like this allows electrons to pass from the copper tube to the iron Rod when the two metals are connected this is because metals are made of charged particles called ions when dissolved in liquid these ions are able to move about freely which then produces electricity the real question however is how on Earth they managed to figure this out well as with any scientific theory some Scholars wanted to debunk the battery idea but in 1978 the experiment was put to the test with a replica Baghdad battery and some grape juice once constructed scientists actually managed to produce small amounts of electricity it was confirmed the battery could generate 1 to 2 volts of electricity this kind of power could have been used for electr plating where metals are coated with materials like gold and silver via an electric charge this could have been used to upgrade boring old gray Metals into luxury items some believe it was also used for electrotherapy where your aches and pains were treated using electricity to cure tense muscles but to this day scientists continue to debate its true purpose and it's un likely will ever know for sure unless they find an ancient TV remote metallic mystery it's extremely annoying when something rusts Beyond repair anyone who's ever tried to ride a bike with a rusted chain knows exactly what I'm talking about if only there was some kind of technology that could protect metal from rust oh wait there was in the 5th Century in Delhi India an iron pillar was constructed to honor the Hindu god Vishnu reaching 23' 8 in in height and weighing 6.5 tons in total the pole has stood for over 1,600 years and yet it has never rusted this is incredibly strange because when iron is exposed to air and water a chemical reaction occurs called oxidization which creates iron oxide AKA rust however despite being erected in the open and exposed to the extreme heat and humidity of the area this pillar has been completely resistant to such corrosion scientists believe there must have been a great deal of care taken when extracting and processing the metal which resulted in a layer of Misa white coating the pillar this is a compound mix of iron oxygen and hydrogen yeah the gas the resulting alloy of which does not rust how exactly they did this though no one's sure because it's exist was only predicted in 1970 at which point no one had actually seen it or realized the ancient pole was coded in it scientists are still racking their brains trying to figure out how this technology was developed with companies spending top dollar to find ways of creating mte themselves and yet 1600 years ago people of the time forged a metal that would not rust with comparatively rudimentary knowledge and tools that just goes to show how incredibly compx Lex and ingenious the art of Metallurgy is and also how cheap my bike is tough to crack just looking at a hill is enough to get me out of breath but somehow the ancient Incans were powering up that hill with giant Boulders in tow all to build this humongous structure sax iaan is a Peruvian Citadel of truly monstrous proportions the mountain itself is about half the height of Mount Everest with the base of the ancient Citadel found at over 12,000 ft the longest of the three remaining walls is over 1,300 ft long and 20 ft tall with the largest blocks varying from a hefty 141 to 220 tons it feels impossible picturing human hands constructing this monolithic Fortress let alone moving each mega block into place but it's definitely there how it was built though no one knows built back sometime in the 15th century the Incans used dry Stone to construct The Citadel placing each of the Rocks together so perfectly there was no need to bind them with mortar they're fused together so tightly that even after 600 years they're still stable The Rock Solid formation has even helped the ruins survive the deadliest of earthquakes the gaps between the rocks are so tight not even a single piece of paper or the point of a pin can fit through where the stones meet its construction would have required precision and planning beyond anything the modern world has ever seen it wouldn't have been light work either with even the smallest blocks roughly weighing more than a blue whale so how they manag to stack them so perfectly without cranes or heavy lifting equipment is a complete mystery oh no I'm thinking about exercise again sword sorcery over a thousand years ago in Syria's capital of Damascus the local blacksmiths here were known as legendary weapon makers not because they made the biggest weapons or even the most advanced in fact their Fame came down to simple swords at this time iron was used for most simple short bladed weapons as the metal was strong and tough but the blades were prone to Breaking as iron doesn't have a high elastic limit they would add carbon to try and make the blades more flexible but too much carbon made the metal brittle and prone to shattering however the blacksmiths of Damascus sourced iron ore with the perfect carbon content known as wootz steel which gave the swords that all important High elastic index these woot's ingots were expertly forged into long Damascus blades which became renowned for being tough but flexible resistant to shattering and were easily identifiable from the distinctive patterns of banding found along them their reputation inspired Legends with swords of Damascus steel fabled to be able to slice cleanly through rifle barrels Tree Trunks and even rocks initially scientists dismissed the legend yes the steel had been strong but not that strong surely however on closer inspection of Damascus steel relics in 2006 scientists discovered carbon nanot tubes in one of the blades this meant the blade was super plastic able to deform well beyond its usual Breaking Point while being super hard at the exact same time tragically though in the 1700s the method of making woot steel was tragically lost scientists have been left baffled ever since by exactly how such an incredible metal was created at the time and while you can buy similar pattern layered Damascus steel today real Damascus steel hasn't been crafted in over 300 years well at least that cut to the point superior sword Damascus blades aren't the only weapons that have left scientists scratching their heads over in China the discovery of the sword of gojan has had an equally baffling effect the 22-in Long Blade and 3.3 in Hilt of this tin bronze sword was discovered in an ancient tomb back in 1965 and from its appearance you'd never guess it was more than 2400 years old created sometime between 771 to 476 BCE the sword has barely tarnished with age a feature that hasn't been observed in many other artifacts from this period the sword itself was believed to have been created for gojan one of the last kings of the long lost state of u despite being buried in damp conditions for more than two Millennia the sword is sharp with tests affirming that it still has the structural Integrity to cut cleanly through a stack of paper but how has this defied the test of time put simply scientists aren't sure they believe it may be something to do with the chemical composition of the sword itself with the blade formed predominantly of copper but the edges contain more tin content which makes them harder and more able to keep a sharp edge the sword was also found in a near airtight Scabbard but swords found in similar situations have historically suffered from at least some degree of minor tarnish but the gojan sword is in a Word Perfect perfectly baffling to scientists I'm sure Wildfire on water a fire that gets out of control can be incredibly dangerous which is exactly why the Byzantine Empire harnessed Firepower for war according to historical records and illustrations Greek fire was an incendiary weapon utilized by the Byzantine Empire around 670 CE one that was able to burn ships even as they were surrounded by water how by setting the very water Ablaze too now very little is known about the death delivery device itself as records around it are incomplete it could have been as big as a building more smaller than a car but the power of this invention came from the fuel used to feed such a destructive fire historians have never found the exact ingredients meaning we'd never be able to recreate it again that's probably a good thing for us but for the Bizen tees it was an essential part of their weapons Arsenal it's likely that petrol or NAFTA which is another highly flammable liquid was mixed together with sulfur or pitch pitch itself is made from petroleum and coal tar a very powerful substance that repels water making it capable of forming a coat on the water's surface that was able to burn and offer their enemies no respit while scientists generally agree that the byzantines used pressurized nozzles to aim this deadly liquid at their foes they have no idea how they lit this deadly mixture or how they were able to put it out again thanks to that all powerful chemical makeup once ignited they would have needed sand or vinegar to stop its spread and how could they do that if it was raging on water making the cut the ancient Roman era is known for its beautiful sculptures with busts statues and reliefs carved out in immaculate detail in order to preserve a scene or person from history however one carving in particular really intrigues the historical and scientific communities this column drum not for how round it is or what building it was meant for but for the incisions you can see lined up perfectly along it those deep Cuts could only have been made by four separate saw blades separated by a few inches all perfectly aligned their consistency and the power needed to achieve this can only have come from a machine but ancient Rome existed between the 8th Century BCE to 476 CE more than a thousand years before modern sawing Machinery was invented so how was this even possible well a relief carved into the sarcophagus of a long dead Miller might hold the answer in it a mechanical Contraption can be seen seemingly powered by a large water wheel which in turn powered a stone sawing device reconstructions of such a Contraption have been put together to look something like this and while it seems like some sort of complex rude Goldberg machine the science behind it appears to make sense water drives the wheel which has a cog extended on a pole attached to it as the wheel turns the Cog slotted to fit along along a second Cog turns in tandem this Cog Powers two separate wheels on either side of the cogs housing each attached to a saw suspended within a frame over a stone block which drive forward and back in line with the rotation of the wheels it seems complex at first but when matched up with those relief designs it's genius the ancient Romans really developed stone cutting saws but why leave four identical lines over one column drum what was the point of that it might be that the drum was just a test or perhaps someone was trying to slice off a slab or maybe they were just testing out a design while the exact reason why is lost to history there can be no doubt of the Brilliance and Ingenuity behind it riddle of the rocks to an outsider this mysterious Tech might look like a bunch of stones which to be honest is true but they're the most famous bunch of stones around around aside from the Rolling Stones but that's another video no I'm talking about Stonehenge situated in an empty field in Wiltshire England this famous ring of rocks has been standing some 13 ft High since the Neolithic period believed to have taken hundreds of years to erect between 3,000 and 1500 BCE but it wasn't a simple case of digging these stones out of the ground and standing them up though these rocks were moved from one place to the other then stacked high like building blocks how was this technology available so long ago well based on the geological makeup it's believed that they must have been transported from several hundred miles away likely from one Quarry in the Marlboro downs and another in the prale Hills then once they arrived they must have hauled them over their heads each weighing over 2 tons and planned a very specific formation all all this but at the time the most advanced Neolithic tools were still limited to just Spears and wheels so how on Earth did they manage such a feat experts assume that several hundred if not thousands of people involved dug large holes the stones were hauled into position and then dragged upright into the hole with the use of an A-frame Timber platforms are then believed to have been used to raise the horizontal Stones onto the others exactly how though still isn't known it sounds simple but for people working with rudimentary tools 5,000 years ago it just seems impossible I mean I can barely build an Ikea shelf and that's with help a Line in the Sand can you draw a perfect circle freehand I can't even manage a straight line freehand so imagine the technology and strategy that it took to draw this yeah that's a near perfectly circular p pattern drawn roughly to the size of a football field these are just some of the NASA lines a collection of geoglyphs so-called because their symbols carved into the ground etched permanently into the Peruvian desert the combined length of all the lines reaches over an astonishing 800 miles which for perspective is over 14,000 football pitches long while scientists know they were created by making shallow incisions in the sand leaving the dirt beneath exposed the real question is how did their creators do this with such accuracy the Incans carved these shapes out on huge completely flat planes between 500 BCE and 500 a and while it's fairly easy for us to make out all the different shapes and animals by getting up high with helicopters and drones unless they could fly there was no way they could have seen what they were drawing experts believe they would have trace the giant geoglyphs using nothing but guesswork optimism and perhaps some guidance from the stars but they're too good to be guesswork so there must have been some ancient technology or long lost strategy that helped them along the way there's also no way of knowing why they were made either they could have been symbols used to ask their gods and goddesses for help or they could have formed an astronomical calendar to keep track of the days and nights to put simply scientists don't know what they are one thing we do know though is that the Incans made sure we'd never lose sight of them which technology do you wish you knew the secrets behind and which ones do you hope stays hidden for the rest of time let me know down in the comments below and thanks for watching
2023-11-18