Question:
Does anyone have any examples of ancient technology?
Holistic Mystic
2007-04-10 08:11:50 UTC
You can interpret technology loosely to include things like Stonehenge.
Nineteen answers:
loislane
2007-04-11 15:57:32 UTC
I know of a dancing hymnn book that when sung can become a space-ship. It is true people all singing the same hymn in the shape of the star of david, can with positive intentions become a space ship and leave the illusion venturing onwards and up into truth.



I know of other ancient technologies around the hill of tara that are presently misunderstood, the fools are digging the genius up with bulldozers and the so called archaeologists are bagging tthem up in their big black bin liners all higgledy piggledy like. Come on the De Danaan
?
2016-12-14 23:08:42 UTC
Examples Of Ancient Technology
thedavecorp
2007-04-10 08:14:02 UTC
The ancient Egyptians had batteries.

They were also able to make ice without the temperature dropping low enough.

The Egyptians were also very good at storing food for the long term. They preserved bodies very well too.



The Greeks had people waiting who lit fires on the tops of mountains all the way back to Greece to signal that the Trojan war was successful. (Like in the Lord of the Rings when Rohan called for help).



Chinese accupuncture was ancient and very effective even today. The abacus is a non-electronic calculating device that the Chinese have had forever.



The Maya have something called keypoo (I don't know the spelling) in which ropes with colored strands and substrands were attached and you could collect a great deal of data. One strand could indicate a village, another attached could indicate one family, the colors indicating their sexes, the lengths indicating their ages, a number of knots indicating their social status.



The Native American bow-drill to start fires is a personal favorite.



The wheel, levers, pulleys, and even gears have been around for some time. And then there's fire - that's always nice.



Cave men had special accordion-like fans to heat fires up way beyond normal temperatures to melt certain metals that would otherwise be unworkable.



Someone calculated the distance of the sun from the Earth using the pythagorean theorum or something, by looking at when the sun was exactly over a water-well and the distance from another well where the sun was exactly over soon after.





That enough? Or do you need more? Write me if you do. There's plenty of other fascinating technology out there, but it's a little less than "ancient".
Ernie N
2007-04-10 08:23:01 UTC
I just read the most amazing book about Megalithic Society, called Civilization One, by Christopher Knight and Alan Butler.

The technology in question is the megalithic yard. It is a unit of measurement that was used by the ancients all over Europe for more than two thousand years. Stonehenge was built using this measure. The point being, how did so many different cultures over so long a time period use such a precise measurement. Until recently there was no explanation. It turns out, it is based on the number 366 and upon the knowledge of the orbit of Venus. Check it out. It is absolutely mind-boggling.
2007-04-10 10:33:52 UTC
Ancient Greek technology is a set of artifacts and customs that lasted for more than one thousand years. The Romans took a lot of Greek ideas and improved on them. Greek technology had a profound impact both on Western and Muslim civilization. Notable Greek technological inventions include cranes, screws, gears, organs, odometer, dial and pointer devices, wheelbarrows, diving bells, parchment, crossbows, torsion catapults, rutways, showers, roof tiles, breakwaters, the MULTI.cannon and many more innovations.



Greek technicians were pioneers in three of the first four means of non-human propulsion known prior to the Industrial Revolution: watermills, windwheels, and steam engines, although only water power became extensively used in ancient Greece.



http://www.e-telescope.gr/en/cat05/art05_021129.htm

http://www.tmth.edu.gr/en/expo/ancient_greek_technology.html

http://www.16pi2.com/ancient_technology_speculations.htm
freddiem
2007-04-10 08:18:35 UTC
Everybody will have paper somewhere in their house. Paper counts as "ancient technology" and has not been superseded by anything as versatile yet.

The Wheel is another example of "ancient technology."

Look around you , you are surrounded by "ancient technology"
AWRAmale
2007-04-10 08:21:49 UTC
Plato made the first clepsydra working as alarm clock

Map making was something very important for the ancient Greeks
Lucien
2007-04-10 08:15:57 UTC
The Roman Aqueducts, using the rules of siphoning and the cohesion of liquids to transport water across large distances
bobonumpty
2007-04-10 08:28:08 UTC
yes my ancient car sitting in driveway rusting to bits ...and my b listed house in need of demolition ..and my broadband which is in serious need of upgrade lol but also have many antiquities which love to bits unfortunately couldn't fit Stonehenge in handbag
Robin W
2007-04-10 08:16:07 UTC
I think the Antikythera Device is fascinating. It's amazing how close the Greeks came to an industrial revolution.
?
2007-04-10 08:19:04 UTC
The catapult.Under floor heating by the Romans
§ilver
2007-04-10 08:15:33 UTC
irrigation.



ancient mesaplatanians used irrigation, building trenches that ran down hillsides, as a way of watering crops using gravity, allowing them to establish permenant dwellings and create their ancient civilisation.
John
2014-06-01 18:07:02 UTC
I have a stone with three set of petrified windings in a electrical order, said to be 150,000 at the youngest! Someone sure knew some things back then to make this with all its other designs combined using Quartz stone and Piezo!
2007-04-10 20:42:11 UTC
Bloody hell, that VS prasa goes on a bit dont he.
pixie007
2007-04-10 13:49:22 UTC
fire with 2 sticks now that's still is technology and flints.
2007-04-10 08:17:19 UTC
The wheel?
rick r
2007-04-10 08:19:41 UTC
an abicus
ewtaylor2001
2007-04-10 08:18:57 UTC
the wheel, fire, stone tools
2007-04-10 16:29:07 UTC
Who invented rockets?



Horace Hayman Wilson wrote: "Rockets appear to be of

Indian invention, and had long been used in native

armies when Europeans came first in contact with them."

"It is strange that they (rockets) should now be

regarded in Europe as the most recent invention of

artillery." (source: Annals and Antiquities of

Rajasthan: or the Central and Western Rajput States of

India - By James Tod South Asia Books; ; 2 edition

(April 1998) ISBN 8120803809 Vol. II p. 220 and

(source: Historians of M India - Bibliographical Index.

Vol. I p. 373 and 357).

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/War_in_Ancient_India.htm#Weapons%20of%20War%20as%20Gathered%20from%20Literature



Who invented Nuclear Physics?



Buddhist teacher Pakudha Katyayana taught atomic

theory. Maharshi Kanaada of 3rd century, B.C. wrote

atomic theory in Vaiseshika Sutras. Agni Purana gives

smaller magnitudes. The smallest of them is called

Paramaanu which nearly equals one billionth part of a

meter. This value tallies with the size of an organic

molecule calculated by the western scientists.

According to the Upanishads, the five elements of the

nature are Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Akasa. (The

ancient Greek or Roman philosophers did not know

Akasa). One can easily guess that the Earth represents

the solid state, the Water the liquid state and the Air

the gaseous state. The Fire is the plasma, the fourth

state of matter. Western science has not recognized

nuclear state as a state of matter, even though some

nuclear particles are stable; Akasa means nuclear

state. In the ancient Sanskrit text named Anu

Sidhdhantam, Maharshi Goutama described three models of

micro-scopes through which atoms and electrons can be

seen.



Who were the first to calculate the velocity of light?



The Rig Veda Bhashyam by Sayana Madhava gives the

following Sloka praising the Sun:



Yojanam sahasre dve, satadve, dvecha yojane

Ekena nimeshardhena kramamaana namosthuthe



One Yojana equals 15788.8 meters, and half of Nimesha

equals 8/75 fraction of a second. This gives the velocity

of light as 325940 km/s. We have to remember here that the

above value is an approximate one intended for easy

remembrance, like remembering the value of pi as 22/7. It

is better than the value 215000 km/s given by Danish

astronomer Ole Roemer in 1676.



Who invented the guns?



Some people in medieval Europe heard of powerful fire

weapons of the India. Marco Polo (in 13th century) was

financed by the king of his country with the specific

purpose of finding the secret of the Indian fire

weapons. Marco Polo was given gold coins and precious

stones. He also brought some prostitutes to woo people,

if necessary. He first tried to find the secret in the

Punjab region. They pointed a gun at him saying " Get

out of our country. Else, we will shoot you with this

very gun". He then came to south India and tried for

the secret. The south Indians were more tolerant. They

told him that the secret is not known to the public.

The engineers who made the guns reside in the king's

fort generations. The guns were kept in the armory and

the public might not have even seen a gun. The guns

were brought out only at the time of emergency like a

war. A few persons gave hint to Marco Polo that the

knowledge of making gun powder was given to the Chinese

when some Indians visited them in ancient times. Then

Marco Polo went to China, but he could not find any

guns there. The gun powder was used there for making

some festival fire crackers and rockets. He took

samples of the gun powder and returned to Europe. We

know that the gun powder consists of niter, sulphur and

charcoal powder. Natural niter was scarce in Europe,

and what they could get from other lands was not that

pure. The world's purest niter in its natural state is

available in the mines of India. The other problems

faced by the Europeans in making the guns are lack of

good metallic alloys to make the bodies of the guns and

the non-availability of good machine tools for making

them. Manufacture of the guns fell into temporary

oblivion because most of them back-fired or exploded.

How did the British conquer India? Not with their guns.

The first war between the Indians and the British took

place at Mysore during reign of Hyder Ali. The

casualties on the British side was 90 percent and those

on the Indian side was 10 percent. The British realized

that their weapons were inferior to those used by the

Indians. The Indians had rockets and missiles besides

guns and cannons. What is a Sathagni? Most of us think

that it is cannon. Satha means 100 and Agni means fire;

it is a missile containing 100 bullets. It is launched

from a cannon. It explodes after reaching its

destination. Sanskrit manuscripts like Sukra Neethi

Sastra contain many formulas for making gun powder. The

first item exported by the then British East India

company was Indian niter.



According to Sir A. M. Eliot and Heinrich Brunnhofer (a

German Indologist) and Gustav Oppert, all of whom have

stated that ancient Hindus knew the use of gunpowder.

Eliot tells us that the Arabs learnt the manufacture of

gunpowder from India, and that before their Indian

connection they had used arrows of naptha. It is also

argued that though Persia possessed saltpetre in

abundance, the original home of gunpowder was India. In

the light of the above remarks we can trace the

evolution of fire-arms in the ancient India.

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/War_in_Ancient_India.htm



Who invented the ships?



Some persons may argue what is a ship. Read the

definition of a ship:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship



Europe has only soft wood trees. The ships made of

those woods are good for sailing the Mediterranean or a

smaller sea. They are no good for sailing on the

oceans. The ship of Vasco de Gama was about to collapse

when it reached India. It is the Indian marine

engineers who repaired that ship and made it worthy

again for sea travel. Which country has the trees that

provide the hardest wood? India. The Sanskrit name for

deodar tree was Deva Tharu, the tree that gives the

best wood; it is native to India. Other hard woods like

teak and mahogany are also native to India.



J. Ovington, Chaplain to the British King, the

seventeenth-century English traveler, who visited

Surat, wrote a book "A Voyage to Surat in the Year

1689". He was impressed by the skill of the Indians in

ship-building and found that they even outshone

Europeans. The timber used by the Indians was so strong

that it would not ‘crack’ even by the force of a bullet

so he urged the English to use that timber ‘to help

them in war’. Indian Teak stood firmer than the English

Oak, remarked Ovington.

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Seafaring_in_Ancient_India.htm



Ludovico di Varthema (1503 A. D) saw vessels of 1,000

tons burden built at Machili Patnam, Andhra Pradesh.

According to Dr. Vincent, India built great sized

vessels from the time of Agathareids (171 B.C.) to the

16th century. And no wonder the Portuguese, when they

first landed at the west coast, were carried away by

the excellent Indian vessels. Later still, the

Vijayanagar Empire, which had as many as 300 ports, had

a powerful fleet. [Dr. Radha Kumud Mookerji, Indian

Shipping - A History of the Sea-Borne Trade and Marine

Activity of The Indians From The Earliest Times, Orient

Longmans, 1912, ISBN 8121509165]

http://nasrani.wordpress.com/2007/02/20/ancient-maritime-route-between-india-and-egypt/



Rig Veda mentions ships with 100 oars. Such ships

sailed over seven oceans and returned to India.

Visitors to India from Greece and Rome during the

pre-Christian times wrote that the Brahmins of India

knew that the earth is in the form of a globe and one

can reach the same place after sailing through the

seven oceans. The Buddhist Jataka stories wrote about

large Indian ships carrying seven hundred people. In

the Artha Sastra, Koutilya wrote about the Board of

Shipping and the Commissioner of Port who supervised

sea traffic. The Harivamsa informs that the first

geographical survey of the world was performed during

the period of Vaivasvata. The towns, villages and

demarcation of agricultural land of that period were

depicted on maps. Brahmanda Purana provides the best

and the most detailed description of world map drawn on

a flat surface using an accurate scale. Padma Purana

says that world maps were prepared and maintained in

book form and kept with care and safety in chests.

Surya Siddhantha speaks about construction of wooden

globe representing earth and marking of horizontal

circles, equatorial circles and further divisions. The

second item exported by the erst while British East

India Company was Indian ship. A few of these ships are

still in service, and are used for training cadets of

the British Navy. During World War II, Maharajas of

India have lent some hundreds of their ships to the

British for use as hospital ships.



Who invented steel?



The Rig Veda mentions "wootz" steel. Evidence for the

manufacture of steel in ancient times is available in

South India. The Arabians used to make a lot of money

by selling Indian steel ingots to Europe. In 1746, the

queen of Britain had sent a scientist named Benjamin

Hauntsman to India to obtain the secret of making

steel. Hauntsman stayed in India for some years, went

back to Britain and submitted a report to the queen.

Some historic records say that he did not write the

main secret and he started his foundry in his native

town. How the secret reached Henry Bessemer is

unnecessary for us because his process was essentially

the Indian crucible method of making steel. Another

Indian contribution to industries in Europe was the

process of casting. The frames of machine tools of that

time were made of wood. Good mechanical devices like

clocks did exist in Britain as early as 1300s. They

were works of skilled crafts persons and were not

products of precision machine tools. It was not until

the structures of the machine tools were cast using

Indian casting method and their other components were

made of hard metals using Indian steel making method,

the high precision machine tools could be made. The so

called Industrial Revolution of Europe in the 1800s

heavily depended on this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wootz



Who invented the aircraft?



India had many ancient Sanskrit texts on aeronautics.

The Yantra Sarvaswa of Maharshi Bharadwaja, Vimaana

Chandrika of Maharshi Narayan, Vyoma Yaana Tantra of

Sounaka, and Vyoma Yaanarka of Dandi Natha are some of

them. They contained topics like Maargadhi Karana

(Navigation and control of speed during flight),

Lohaadhi Karana (alloys used for various components of

the aircraft) and Saktyaadhi Karana (production and

usage of various fuels used in aircrafts). Para Sabda

Grahakata is a subject of monitoring the flight tracks

of aircrafts, navigatory communication system, and

monitoring the conversation of the pilots in the

aircrafts. Maharshi Gouthama mentioned 32 models of

aircrafts used in Treta Yuga; only one model among

them, called Pushpaka Vimaanam, became popular in the

Ramayana. The Vaimaanika Sastra describes Tripura

Vimaanam that uses solar powered engine to travel at

three levels - on the land, under the surface of water,

and in the air. Sakuna Vimaanam is a cross between an

aircraft and a rocket - a space shuttle. The British

have robbed most of our Sanskrit manuscripts during

their rule in India. In 1895, Sivasankar Thalpad of

Bombay had constructed an aircraft with an engine which

flew to an altitude of 1500 feet. He was a Vedic

scholar and used to teach at the J.J. School of Arts.

He obtained the technology from some rare Sanskrit

manuscripts. He also wrote a book in Marathi named

Praacheena Vimaana Vidye Chaasodha. Lalaji Rayanji,

Maharaja of Baroda, was one of the many witnesses who

had seen the flying of that aircraft. After the

untimely death of Prof.Thalpad, his legal heirs sold

all his scripts and materials to the British. (You can

check the year of flying of Wright Brothers).

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Vimanas.htm

http://www.world-mysteries.com/sar_7.htm

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/aiac.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vimana

http://www.hiddenmysteries.org/freebooks/history/vym2.html

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vimanas/vimanas14.htm



Who invented powder metallurgy?



The Indians. The iron pillar in Delhi which does not

get rust even today is the proof for it. It is not the

only one of its kind; there are many more scattered

through out in India. The Russians who took scrapings

from the pillar confirmed that it is made using powder

metallurgy technology. The so called space-age

technology of today can make only small pieces using

powder metallurgy; they are generally used as tips in

cutting tools. How could our ancients make such a big

pillar using powder metallurgy? The pillar is like a

time capsule - it is challenging the world. Can we rise

to the pinnacles of achievement to which our ancients

had reached?



Who invented plastic surgery? The Indians. It is fully

described by Maharshi Susruta, the ancient Ayurvedic

surgeon, in his Samhita. Who invented acupuncture? The

Indians. Who invented the martial arts? The Indians.

Who invented the remote sensing and imaging techniques?

The Indians. Who discovered Advanced Astrology? The

Indians. Who discovered Advanced Astronomy? The

Indians. Who discovered Groundwater Hydrology? The

Indians. We can read Brihat Samhita of Varaha Mihira;

the Indian method is better than the modern techniques

of using space satellites. Who were the first to

construct planned cities with high technology

infrastructures for water supply and sewerage? The

Indians. Who invented the hanging bridges? The Indians.

Chinese who visited India a few thousands of years ago

wrote about our hanging bridges which used steel beams

and steel ropes. Who discovered higher philosophy? The

Indians. Were there Doora Sravana and Doora Darsana

machines in ancient India? Yes. Did our ancients knew

radars and laser weapons? Yes, the techology was given

in the Sanskrit manuscript Samarangana Sutra Dhara.

Who discovered Irrigation Engineering? Another name for

India was Yilaa Varta. The hidden meaning of this name

is Jala Maaruta, the country of water laden winds. No

other country in the world has monsoons. The rainfall

in India is more than the total rainfall in the rest of

the world. India is the land of mighty rivers - and

that in a very large number that outnumber all other

countrie. In the olden days, the water flow rate in the

Ganga exceeded that of any other river in the world.

The people of South India built and maintained an

extensive system of irrigation tanks and associated

canals with extraordinary managerial and social skills.

They shared the waters following the ways of nature

from time immemorial. Construction of small dams at

every possible location was carried out with such

completeness that a British engineer of the 19th

century thought that it would be impossible to add

another tank to that irrigation system. It was a marvel

of Indian engineering and human cooperation. Nothing

like it existed else where in the world at any time in

the past. While peasants of other countries broke their

backs to reap one harvest, the Indians produced two or

three bumper crops a year. The harvest in the Krishna

and Kauvery river basins was large enough to meet the

needs of rest of our country during periods of crisis.

Visitors from Europe and China in pre-Christian times

wrote that India was a land of plenty. Our Buddhist and

Jain religious records also say the same thing.

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Hindu_Cosmology.htm

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Advanced_Concepts.htm

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Yantras.htm

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Dwaraka.htm

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/India_and_Egypt.htm

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/India_and_Greece.htm

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/India_and_China.htm

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Dwaraka.htm



Binary System of number representation: A Mathematician

named Pingala (c. 100BC) developed a system of binary

enumeration convertible to decimal numerals. He

described the system in his book called

Chandahshaastra. The present day computers are

dependent on Binary System.



The word "Algorithm" was derived from a method

described by Al-Khwarizmi, an eminent 9th century Arab

scholar. He played important roles in importing

knowledge on arithematic and algebra from India to the

Arabs. In his work, De numero indorum (Concerning the

Hindu Art of Reckoning), it was based on an Arabic

translation of Brahmagupta where he gave a full account

of the Hindu numerals which was the first to expound

the system with its digits 0,1,2,3,...,9 and decimal

place value which was a fairly recent arrival from

India. Computer programming heavily uses Algorithm.

http://www.cerc.utexas.edu/~jay/anc.html#zero



Among all countries in the world, India has inherited

the largest number of ancient manuscripts from time

immemorial. They were written on the widest range of

subjects known to humans. Indians have travelled around

the world in ships to spread their knowledge since

millenia. The oldest universities of the world like

Patali Putra and Taksha Sila are located in India.

Scholars from far east and Europe came here for higher

knowledge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Patna

http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Places/Place/419417

http://wikimapia.org/205636/

http://www.magazine.com.pk/travel/pakistan.php?ss=&page=taxilahistory

http://www.the-south-asian.com/Dec2002/Taxila-%20Dharmrajika%20Stupa.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxila

http://www.world66.com/asia/southasia/pakistan/taxila/history


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