Category: Ancient Technology
Objects described in ancient texts as though they were built rather than imagined. The Ark of the Covenant as a materials specification, manna with a defined shelf life, the Tower of Babel in fired brick and bitumen, megastructures given with published dimensions. Specifications, tolerances and handling rules.
-
The Viking Sunstone: How It Works, and What Has Been Found
The physics is settled: a calcite crystal really can locate the sun through cloud. Everything else is argued — the one text describing it…
-
Derinkuyu: The Doors Only Close From Inside
Eighty-five metres down, eight levels open of an estimated eighteen, and a half-tonne stone wheel with a spear-hole through the middle. A building tells…
-
Roman Concrete: The Material That Heals Itself
Modern marine concrete fails in 50 years. Caesarea harbour has been in the Mediterranean since 22 BC and is getting stronger. What the lime…
-
The Baghdad Battery: The Chemistry Works. That Was Never the Question.
Copper, iron, bitumen and vinegar will produce a current whether anyone intended it or not. What the Baghdad jars actually are, and why capability…
-
The Antikythera Mechanism: A Computer From 100 BC
Thirty surviving bronze gears that predicted eclipses, tracked four calendar cycles and modelled the moon’s variable speed. Nothing comparable appears again for 1,400 years.
-
How Was the Great Pyramid Built? What We Now Know
A boat captain’s logbook, a buried Nile branch and a 30-metre void nobody has entered. What the evidence actually shows about Giza – and…
-
The Manna Enigma: What Was It Actually Made Of?
A granular white solid tasting of honey and oil, deposited nightly, rotting on a 24-hour timer that was suspended once a week. What the…
-
The Ark of the Covenant: Holy Relic or Ancient Weapon?
Gold, wood, gold – the Exodus 25 specification is the layer order of a capacitor. We run the actual numbers on the Ark of…