10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts

10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts http://www.ancientx.com/nm/anmviewer.asp?a=75&z=1

Pretty interesting article, I thought.

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What are we to make of these finds? There are several possibilities:

• Intelligent humans date back much, much further than we realize.
• Other intelligent beings and civilizations existed on earth far beyond our recorded history.
• Our dating methods are completely inaccurate, and that stone, coal and fossils form much more rapidly than we now estimate.

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If I had to choose one of the above possibilities, I would have to say it might be the second one. I don't think our dating methods are completely out of whack though. I guess anything's possible... I wonder if we will ever find out? Probably not. :(

Quite awesome. I really don't have a comment since this is beyond me. It only reminds me of what more we could achieve and find out, if only people woldn't lie to eacother. Now I really don't know what's "real" and what's not. I hope it is though, makes everything just a bit more interesting.

I love this stuff. There are a lot of archaeological finds that flat-out defy common wisdom about human history.

Personally, I believe we have reached at least this stage of technological advance in the past, but due to either a natural or human disaster ended up falling back into darkness.

Try reading both the Tower of Babel and the Flood stories with that thought in mind...

They have been digging this stuff up in ym back yard and I didn't even know about it ...

Awesome article, Burns! :goodjob2:

Here is more on the Antikythera Mechanism, from a thread I posted a while ago.

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LONDON, England (Reuters) -- An ancient astronomical calculator made at the end of the 2nd century BC was amazingly accurate and more complex than any instrument for the next 1,000 years, scientists said on Wednesday.

The Antikythera Mechanism is the earliest known device to contain an intricate set of gear wheels. It was retrieved from a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901 but until now what it was used for has been a mystery.

Although the remains are fragmented in 82 brass pieces, scientists from Britain, Greece and the United States have reconstructed a model of it using high-resolution X-ray tomography.

They believe their findings could force a rethink of the technological potential of the ancient Greeks.

"It could be described as the first known calculator," said Professor Mike Edmunds, a professor of astrophysics at Cardiff University in Wales.

"Our recent work has applied very modern techniques that we believe have now revealed what its actual functions were."

The calculator could add, multiply, divide and subtract. It was also able to align the number of lunar months with years and display where the sun and the moon were in the zodiac.

Edmunds and his colleagues discovered it had a dial that predicted when there was likely to be a lunar or solar eclipse. It also took into account the elliptical orbit of the moon.

"The actual astronomy is perfect for the period," Edmunds told Reuters.

"What is extraordinary about the thing is that they were able to make such a sophisticated technological device and to be able to put that into metal," he added.

The model of the calculator shows 37 gear wheels housed in a wooden case with inscriptions on the cover that related to the planetary movements.

Francois Charette, of the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, said the findings, reported in the journal Nature, provide a wealth of data for future research.

"Newly deciphered inscriptions that relate to the planetary movements make it plausible that the mechanism originally also had gearings to predict the motion of the planets," he said in a commentary.

Edmunds described the instrument as unique, saying there is nothing like it in the history of astronomy. Similar complicated mechanisms were not seen until the appearance of medieval cathedral clocks much later.

"What was not quite so apparent before was quite how beautifully designed this was," he said. "That beauty of design in this mechanical thing forces you to say 'Well gosh, if they can do that what else could they do?' "

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That's sooo interesting, O - I must've missed it when you posted it before. It's fascinating the kinds of things humans could make with the technological limitations of the time, and be completely AHEAD of their time!

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Originally Posted by pj

Personally, I believe we have reached at least this stage of technological advance in the past, but due to either a natural or human disaster ended up falling back into darkness.

Try reading both the Tower of Babel and the Flood stories with that thought in mind...

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I know, it would be really amazing to read about how the technology for these sort of things were lost throughout history. And how many other artifacts like this still remain undiscovered?

I'll have to check into those books, thanks for the recommendation :)

Both are in Genesis.

ah right. Maybe I need to spend more time in the Religion forum :P

I tend to believe the theory that the carbon dating technique was flawed or misleading in the discovery of these artifacts.

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Originally Posted by jedimind

I tend to believe the theory that the carbon dating technique was flawed or misleading in the discovery of these artifacts.

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That is entirely possible. I mean, we can't really rule it out so it's always in the realm of possibilities. What other methods of dating are there, and I wonder what methods we will come up with in the future?

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Originally Posted by Burns

That is entirely possible. I mean, we can't really rule it out so it's always in the realm of possibilities. What other methods of dating are there, and I wonder what methods we will come up with in the future?

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Yea, that's not to say that it's completely inaccurate in all cases but it is possible that some geological process affected the aging of the rock surrounding the artifacts.

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Originally Posted by Burns

ah right. Maybe I need to spend more time in the Religion forum :P

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Actually, I would strongly recommend AGAINST that if you value your sanity.

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Originally Posted by pj

Actually, I would strongly recommend AGAINST that if you value your sanity.

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ditto