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. Had we not have discovered pneumatics, for instance, could we have later stumbled on the powerful properties of sound?
Could the ancients have simply taken a different path, suggesting that other technologies could exist even cheaper and simpler than the methods we use?
MYTHS OF ANCIENT TECH
Some myths speak of stones on pyramids and stone circles being levitated into position as if by magic. We laugh at such stories. Yet we are well aware that sound vibrations CAN seem to lift pebbles off the ground.
One theory offered for the Great Pyramid is that it was a mechanism to amplify the natural sounds of the Earth, the granite inner construction vibrating in tune with natural vibrations.
Even the paranormal could be less mysterious if we accept the possibility of some unknown form of sonic power. Consider the poltergeist, and the way objects seem to fly about a room.
THE STORY OF TECH
Sceptics will, of course, treat such ideas with disdain. Technology is a means of adapting the forces of nature to man’s use, and he has done a good job at utilizing all the forces that can be used. However, there is another story to tech they ignore.
Take, for instance, computing. When first envisaged, it manipulated the forces involved in mechanics. The next stage was electric, before going hi-tech with modern electronics. However, the future of computing is said to be a manipulation of the digital code within DNA. Computing may soon cross over to biological forces.
This can be said of many technological innovations. The telescope used basic light, then advanced to radio waves. Who knows what forces may be used in the future. Writing was initially done on stone, then paper and now electronics.
Science is forever working out new ways of adapting forces of nature to man’s use through technology. And it is quite feasible to suggest that all forces can be so used. And sound is one of those forces. So it is not scientifically ridiculous to suggest the ancients understood the properties of this force, even though scientifically unproveable at this time.
Perhaps we need to do more research into the properties of sound. We may discover that the ancients, if they could see our machines, would offer a wry smile at our stupidity.
© Anthony North, November 2007
