Oldest Technologies Scientists STILL Can't Explain

Ancient flamethrowers? Eternal swords? Computers older than Jesus?! It's time to take a look at some old technology the scientists still can't explain.

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[sureshwaran-zswt]

5:21 it has proven many times that "stair" is a farming land that was build like stair to get more sun light and easy farming

[tiffanynajberg]

The first computer is still in use in the DMV, and accounts for its stellar efficiency.

[patriciaposthumus]

One of the ancient technologies that I wish we still had today is Roman cement. That stuff is crazy strong and still stands today thousands of years later. We can barely get a cement sidewalk to last 5 yrs before you start to see cracks in it.

[juslewissr]

Our ancient ancestors have been grossly underestimated. Unfortunately, some discoveries require such a large rewrite of human history that they're literally ignored and swept under the rug.

[amurtigress_mobile]

There is another example about swords: Around the year 0, Norikan swords were popular in ancient Rome.

About 300BC, there was an explosion of a meteorite in mid-air above the Noriker's homeland in southern Bavaria, near the nowadays austrian border. That meteorite scattered a healthy amount of iridium across the landscape. For 300 years this displaced the population, but when they returned they unknowingly used PROTOSOLAR MATTER that hardened their sword blades.

At that time it was normal that swords were bending during battles and needed to be straightened. With their harder to bend swords the romans had a clear edge! (Ha, pun...)

[andrewobrien]

Something I remember Mike Loades saying during a documentary with Tony Robinson on the Peasants Revolt was something to the effect that "Historians loved recording what happened but not the how it happened" in the example Mike and Tony were trying to explain how the Peasants during the revolt got to London in the time they did. I think this comes from people back then thinking that something would be universally understood later but not accounting for changes in technology, geography and other factors.

[MakinnaB]

The Greeks are the key to Western Civilization. The Romans just took everything and gave it new names, and took credit for them.

[darkwarrior]

Those lines cut in the stone column look like something that I would do to practice using a scroll saw. Maybe it had no purpose, and was just someone learning how to use the saw, and practicing by cutting lines through a scrap piece of stone.

[roderickmurdoch]

Fun fact one of the gates at Stonehenge points directly to another neothaic site in New Hampshire.

[DownhillAllTheWay]

The Chameleon cup is a wonder because its colours depend on nano-particles, and the speaker speculates (at 4:31) how they could have mastered the techniques without computers or microscopes. My understanding is (correct me if I'm wrong) that the micro-particles are too small to see with a microscope even if you had one - but in fact, stained glass windows use the same techniques, and they have been around for a long time too, in old churches. Perhaps this glass technique has been pased down from the Romans - that's a possibility - but a lot of what was known in those days was NOT passed down. For example, until the Anti-Kythera mechanism was found, examined and decoded, we believed that the earliest mechanisms using cogwheels in that way, were clocks, which were invented in the 13th century - yet the Antikythera mechanism was much more sophisticated than any early clock - and it comes from the time of Archimedes!

[weatherwitchandfelinefamiliars]

This was fascinating. I studied British Prehistoric Archaeology and it is incredible what our ancestors could do, especially when compared to today. Stonehenge as we see it now with the stones was the final part of what took several thousand years to build. You have the earthworks, the avenues, the causeway enclosures all rich around there. The UK is so rich still with phenomenal structures and so many other countries have their own magnificent structures too 😊 Great viewing, thank you very much 😊

[Shikaku]

Expanding on the glass dichromic nanotechnology, I think they were on to something with nanotechnology. Roman concrete uses techniques similar to carbon nanotubes to give it it's extremely long lasting properties. Maybe it was 2 coincidences because the formula just was lime, volcanic ash and seawater, which seems simple enough for anyone to do however.

[MikeP]

The Ancients don't get nearly enough of the recognition and respect that they deserve.

It seems bonkers to us for a people to drag enormous monoliths 100+ miles on wooden runners from a quarry to a specific site, only for them to set them upright and atop one another. But one thing I always keep in mind is WHAT ELSE ARE THE GOING TO DO? Obviously they have to keep themselves alive with clothing, shelter, and food from hunting, gathering, farming, etc. Aside from that, there were no streaming services, video games, or even books (in many cases) to keep them entertained day in and day out. Instead, they carefully watched the cycles of earth's seasons, the moon's phases, and the movement of the stars. Over and over. Every single day. For their entire lifetime. I have a feeling that their perception of passing time was very different from ours.

The giant "steps" were almost certainly used for terraced farming. They still use terraces for crops right there in the same valley to this day! You can easily see them from the giant steps by simply turning around, hahaha.

The Nazca Lines could have easily been formed by first precisely drawing a much smaller image, then meticulously scaling it up. With ropes and stakes and one hell of an understanding of dimension, they were etched in the soil for whomever to see. They didn't need to be able to see it from above to know what it looked like. As to why? Who knows, but I'd bet a dollar they were intended for gods or maybe a calendar or something. Maybe even several different uses.

[liitswqvsl]

I don't wanna be nitpicking but the Nazca lines weren't made by the Incans, but a pre-Incan civilization called the Nazca. BTW good job on the vid, I really enjoyed it!

[fburnsDubstepEnderFox]

Okay but the giant stairs are actually terrace farms. Traditional farming wasn't possible where they lived thus terrace farms. 😅

[TCAPChrisHandsome]

Stonehenge makes sense. Never doubt the power of human boredom.

[bunyipdragon]

My main query about the giant steps being terraced farming is the solid flat surface - not sure much would grow on or through that.

[ThrillSeeker]

He's right about Wootz steel. Only Japanese swordsmiths ever truly use anything like the old ways anymore. The bands come from folding and twisting of the steel to drive out impurities and smoothen the carbon content throughout. Modern Damascus is more of a statement, because it simply layers different types of finished steel bars or rods, which does not improve upon the performance of a single piece of well-made, well-forged steel.

[massiah]

I wonder if the NASDAQ lines, the spiral in particular, if measured reveals that it matches the golden ratio 🤔

[corkbulb]

The mysterious non-rusting iron pillar of India is definitely not magic or really that advanced at all. I've heard the pillar contains a high level of phosphorus, which will not allow the iron to rust. This can be done accidentally by not purifying the iron during smelting, or added accidentally from the fire used to make the metal. Also, I've also heard the pillar was regularly coated in butter (or ghee) for centuries, which will obviously stop the iron from rusting. Also, the pillar used to be much deeper in the ground, and contrary to its mythical status, isn't actually non rusting, as the first few feet (that used to be in the ground) has quite a lot of rust on the surface. Therefore, it would have been much easier for people to oil (butter?) the upper metal and stop it from rusting. The pillar was then dug up and moved at a later date, and not sunk into the ground as much, which is why the lower half (which was buried) is rusty.
EDIT: About the sword of Goujian, if the edge of the blade was genuinely made of tin, or somehow tin plated, that would explain how it is still sharp and resistant to "rust" (actually, tin oxidizes but is the same process as rusting). Tin basically does not break down like iron or steel does due to oxidation, because the oxygen does not penetrate the thin layer of oxidized metal created at the surface. Iron and steel continues rusting beyond the surface due to molecular physics (that I will not go in to). Basically oxygen transfers from the surface atoms of iron to the next layer down, which is then replaced by more free oxygen in the air until the entire piece of metal is rusted all the way through. Tin and copper don't have this occur. Copper also has the same properties as tin, which is why copper water pipes don't "rust" through and stay intact for a LONG time. The surface layer of oxidation protects the copper (or tin) below.