This Article is Republished from the Archive.
Ancient Machines and Instruments
We tend to think that machines have only been around for a few hundred years at most, but is this true? Most people would say yes, but evidence to the contrary is beginning to surface. Even without this evidence there is indirect evidence that contradicts this assumption. By indirect evidence I mean things that were created to a tolerance that only a machine would account for.
When we look at direct evidence, that is the finding of a machine itself, we are sometimes taken by surprise. Sometimes the unthinkable is found. This was the case when the Antikythera Mechanism was discovered. It was found under the ocean and was so encrusted that no one bothered to clean it up. It lay in the basement of a museum for years until it began to draw interest. It turned out that this object, which was from about 80 B.C. was a precision geared astronomical calculator. It has 32 bronze gears including a differential gear. It is accurate to 1 part in 40,000. But how could this object exist when the first rack and lever clock wasn't invented until 1722. Where did this device come from and what was it used for and more importantly, how was it made? The device proves that the ancients were much more advanced than we give them credit for. This device was a type of mechanical navigational computer. It makes one wonder, did the ancient Greeks have more of these devices on their ships or was this a prototype? If they had more, than maybe they were able to sail to places we don't even know about. They could have even settled in North America. But let’s look at this a little deeper. Maybe this invention wasn't ancient Greek but was from an older race and just being used by the Greeks. This would indicate that there was a more advanced race on this planet that we don't even know about. Another question is how were the gears cut. Was there a machine involved? If so then there was advanced machining involved which means that other advanced objects might have existed.
Ancient man was fascinated with the movement of the universe. He built mechanical spheres to mimic this. The first mechanical sphere is said to have been built as early as the 3rd century B.C. and is attributed to Archimedes. Some of these ancient mechanical devices were so accurate that they could predict eclipses. According to Cicero in the first century B.C. Marcus Claudius Marcellus, the conqueror of Syracuse brought marvelous devices back to Rome which he kept mostly for himself. This again would seem to indicate that the ancient Greeks were more advanced than we thought, or that they had found a cache of devices that some ancient race had left. But it wasn't only the ancient Greeks that showed mechanical advancement beyond what is commonly thought of today, the ancient Egyptians exhibited precision that could only be accounted for by machines and very accurate measuring devices. Granite boxes inside tombs and pyramids had such perfect corners that they had to be measured with some sort of instrument, and how was the Great Pyramid constructed so perfectly? The Pyramid was the tallest structure in the world for 4,000 years. Can you imagine that it must have been hit with every type of storm nature had to offer in that time? The Pyramid is almost perfectly even on all sides with the difference, even today, being miniscule. So how was this accomplished if the ancient Egyptians didn't have sophisticated measuring instruments? Common sense would seem to indicate that they must have had some type of advanced measuring instruments to construct the Pyramid so perfectly.
In ancient Babylon it seems they knew about electricity and batteries. The proof of this is an ancient battery that was found there. Some believe that it may have been used by a medicine man in some sort of healing ritual. Where did this knowledge of electricity come from? This sort of ties in to some strange drawings in Egyptian temples that many think are of electron tubes. Did the ancients have electrical knowledge and if so, why was nothing found to prove this except the battery? In Delhi, India there is a pillar made from metal that NEVER corrodes, it is called the Ashoka Pillar. It weighs about six tons and is over 23 feet high. It has lasted over 1600 years without corroding. I could go on in detail but let’s just touch on some ancient objects. Gliders from tombs in Egypt, gold jewelry shaped like a jet plane from South America that is at least 1,000 years old, a Neanderthal man with a bullet hole in his skull, ancient stones from Peru that depict man and dinosaur together and metal alloys that are millions of years old. There is so much that can't be explained here.
Of course, all this is argumentative. There are always people that will say UFOs landed and the aliens really helped the Egyptians build the Pyramids. Of course, we can also say that maybe the ancient Egyptians discovered the secrets of an extinct race. There is a tale going around that states the survivors of Atlantis settled in Egypt and became the Egyptians and that they brought their technology with them. Another theory says that the Sphinx is way older than the pyramids and was built by an advanced race before the Egyptians and they decided to build their pyramids near it. Even the pyramids are said to be over 10,000 years old by some, including Edgar Cayce, the famous sleeping prophet, who had it come to him in a dream. Of all the prophets, Cayce was the most accurate.
One of the places that could have contained proof of ancient machines was the library at ancient Alexandria. Unfortunately, it was burned down and most of the knowledge of the ancient world was lost.
Since we are talking theory here let’s go a little further. There are a few people that think there is a chance the human race has advanced to this point before only to destroy itself and be forced to start over. They have been led to this conclusion by unexplained discoveries such as finding a capacitor inside a rock or other objects inside stone. The feeling is that humans cannot get past a certain point without destroying themselves and this may be our third or fourth time around. The theory goes on to say that between the weapons and natural earth forces over this extreme time period, evidence of man's prior existence has been wiped out.
But cultures seem to come and go without explanation. A good example of this is Sanxingdui in Sichuan Province in China. About 75 years ago some artifacts were discovered by a farmer. This let to further investigation and it was discovered that a whole advanced civilization existed here at least 5,000 years ago. We know they were advanced by their craftsmanship. They left behind beautiful masks and other items. They themselves disappeared without a trace. No one knows where they came from or where they disappeared to. They are just another mystery in the historical record of planet Earth.
