NationStates Jolt Archive

Taken from About.com

The Grooved Spheres
Over the last few decades, miners in South Africa have been digging up mysterious metal spheres. Origin unknown, these spheres measure approximately an inch or so in diameter, and some are etched with three parallel grooves running around the equator. Two types of spheres have been found: one is composed of a solid bluish metal with flecks of white; the other is hollowed out and filled with a spongy white substance. The kicker is that the rock in which they where found is Precambrian - and dated to 2.8 billion years old! Who made them and for what purpose is unknown.

The Dropa Stones
In 1938, an archeological expedition led by Dr. Chi Pu Tei into the Baian-Kara-Ula mountains of China made an astonishing discovery in some caves that had apparently been occupied by some ancient culture. Buried in the dust of ages on the cave floor were hundreds of stone disks. Measuring about nine inches in diameter, each had a circle cut into the center and was etched with a spiral groove, making it look for all the world like some ancient phonograph record some 10,000 to 12,000 years old. The spiral groove, it turns out, is actually composed of tiny hieroglyphics that tell the incredible story of spaceships from some distant world that crash-landed in the mountains. The ships were piloted by people who called themselves the Dropa, and the remains of whose descendents, possibly, were found in the cave.

The Ica Stones
Beginning in the 1930s, the father of Dr. Javier Cabrera, Cultural Anthropologist for Ica, Peru, discovered many hundreds of ceremonial burial stones in the tombs of the ancient Incas. Dr. Cabrera, carrying on his father's work, has collected more than 1,100 of these andesite stones, which are estimated to be between 500 and 1,500 years old and have become known collectively as the Ica Stones. The stones bear etchings, many of which are sexually graphic (which was common to the culture), some picture idols and others depict such practices as open-heart surgery and brain transplants. The most astonishing etchings, however, clearly represent dinosaurs - brontosaurs, triceratops (see photo), stegosaurus and pterosaurs. While skeptics consider the Ica Stones a hoax, their authenticity has neither been proved or disproved.

The Antikythera Mechanism
A perplexing artifact was recovered by sponge-divers from a shipwreck in 1900 off the coast of Antikythera, a small island that lies northwest of Crete. The divers brought up from the wreck a great many marble and and bronze statues that had apparently been the ship's cargo. Among the findings was a hunk of corroded bronze that contained some kind of mechanism composed of many gears and wheels. Writing on the case indicated that it was made in 80 B.C., and many experts at first thought it was an astrolabe, an astronomer's tool. An x-ray of the mechanism, however, revealed it to be far more complex, containing a sophisticated system of differential gears. Gearing of this complexity was not known to exist until 1575! It is still unknown who constructed this amazing instrument 2,000 years ago or how the technology was lost.

The Baghdad Battery
Today batteries can be found in any grocery, drug, convenience and department store you come across. Well, here's a battery that's 2,000 years old! Known as the Baghdad Battery, this curiosity was found in the ruins of a Parthian village believed to date back to between 248 B.C. and 226 A.D. The device consists of a 5-1/2-inch high clay vessel inside of which was a copper cylinder held in place by asphalt, and inside of that was an oxidized iron rod. Experts who examined it concluded that the device needed only to be filled with an acid or alkaline liquid to produce an electric charge. It is believed that this ancient battery might have been used for electroplating objects with gold. If so, how was this technology lost... and the battery not rediscovered for another 1,800 years?

The Coso Artifact
While mineral hunting in the mountains of California near Olancha during the winter of 1961, Wallace Lane, Virginia Maxey and Mike Mikesell found a rock, among many others, that they thought was a geode - a good addition for their gem shop. Upon cutting it open, however, Mikesell found an object inside that seemed to be made of white porcelain. In the center was a shaft of shiny metal. Experts estimated that it should have taken about 500,000 years for this fossil-encrusted nodule to form, yet the object inside was obviously of sophisticated human manufacture. Further investigation revealed that the porcelain was surround by a hexagonal casing, and an x-ray revealed a tiny spring at one end. Some who have examined the evidence say it looks very much like a modern-day spark plug. How did it get inside a 500,000-year-old rock?

Ancient Model Aircraft
There are artifacts belonging to ancient Egyptian and Central American cultures that look amazingly like modern-day aircraft. The Egyptian artifact, found in a tomb at Saqquara, Egypt in 1898, is a six-inch wooden object that strongly resembles a model airplane, with fuselage, wings and tail. Experts believe the object is so aerodynamic that it is actually able to glide. The small object discovered in Central America (shown at right), and estimated to be 1,000 years old, is made of gold and could easily be mistaken for a model of a delta-wing aircraft - or even the Space Shuttle. It even features what looks like a pilot's seat.

Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica
Workmen hacking and burning their way through the dense jungle of Costa Rica to clear an area for banana plantations in the 1930s stumbled upon some incredible objects: dozens of stone balls, many of which were perfectly spherical. They varied in size from as small as a tennis ball to an astonishing 8 feet in diameter and weighing 16 tons! Although the great stone balls are clearly man-made, it is unknown who made them, for what purpose and, most puzzling, how they achieved such spherical precision.

Impossible Fossils
Fossils, as we learned in grade school, appear in rocks that were formed many thousands of years ago. Yet there are a number of fossils that just don't make geological or historical sense. A fossil of a human handprint, for example, was found in limestone estimated to be 110 million years old. What appears to be a fossilized human finger found in the Canadian Arctic also dates back 100 to 110 million years ago. And what appears to be the fossil of a human footprint, possibly wearing a sandal, was found near Delta, Utah in a shale deposit estimated to be 300 million to 600 million years old.

Out-of-Place Metal Objects
Humans were not even around 65 million years ago, never mind people who could work metal. So then how does science explain semi-ovoid metallic tubes dug out of 65-million-year-old Cretaceous chalk in France? In 1885, a block of coal was broken open to find a metal cube obviously worked by intelligent hands. In 1912, employees at an electric plant broke apart a large chunk of coal out of which fell an iron pot! A nail was found embedded in a sandstone block from the Mesozoic Era. And there are many, many more such anomalies.

Opinions, thoughts?

Original link http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa011402a.htm

Impossible Fossils
Fossils, as we learned in grade school, appear in rocks that were formed many thousands of years ago. Yet there are a number of fossils that just don't make geological or historical sense. A fossil of a human handprint, for example, was found in limestone estimated to be 110 million years old. What appears to be a fossilized human finger found in the Canadian Arctic also dates back 100 to 110 million years ago. And what appears to be the fossil of a human footprint, possibly wearing a sandal, was found near Delta, Utah in a shale deposit estimated to be 300 million to 600 million years old.



Weren't those fakes?

Weren't those fakes?

I think your thinking of Pauxly river, which are still hevely debated but not nessecalry fakes

http://www.geocities.com/tasosmit2001/fossils.htm

The article from the about article

...

Boy...

I'm only shocked they didn't include the finding of the big piece of coal which, when cracked open, contained a live toad.

folktales, urban myth, and coincidences, not _one_ of these is remotely puzzling.

The Baghdad Battery's loss isn't all that surprising. Lots of technology was lost throughout the ages only to be rediscovered much later. Look at cement. The Romans used it everywhere but it was lost for a few hundred years before being rediscovered. And who can forget all of Di Vinci's accomplishments which were lost and found again after most of the technology or information had been relearned elsewhere.

I think your thinking of Pauxly river, which are still hevely debated but not nessecalry fakes

http://www.geocities.com/tasosmit2001/fossils.htm

The article from the about article
The first picture shows what could also be the footprint/handprint of a reptile, the second one should be DNA tested (since it says there's marrow in it) and found out whether it's human or not. And the third one... well, that could be anything, it doesn't have to be a sandal print. Hell, another animal could have moved a rock and it left an imprint like that.

What about that bronze disc they found in Germany?

The Baghdad Battery's loss isn't all that surprising. Lots of technology was lost throughout the ages only to be rediscovered much later. Look at cement. The Romans used it everywhere but it was lost for a few hundred years before being rediscovered. And who can forget all of Di Vinci's accomplishments which were lost and found again after most of the technology or information had been relearned elsewhere.
Also, look at calculus, the ancient greeks discovered it but it was lost during the dark ages. Newton and Leibniz had to rediscover it.

I always thought the Egyptian light bulb was interesting. Here is a link:

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/chaptera/

The Baghdad Battery's loss isn't all that surprising. Lots of technology was lost throughout the ages only to be rediscovered much later. Look at cement. The Romans used it everywhere but it was lost for a few hundred years before being rediscovered. And who can forget all of Di Vinci's accomplishments which were lost and found again after most of the technology or information had been relearned elsewhere.

This is very true... Or it could be that the Baghdad Battery was made by an inventer who couldn't figure out a practical use for the Battery and threw it out.

The first picture shows what could also be the footprint/handprint of a reptile, the second one should be DNA tested (since it says there's marrow in it) and found out whether it's human or not. And the third one... well, that could be anything, it doesn't have to be a sandal print. Hell, another animal could have moved a rock and it left an imprint like that.

Was it just me, or did that supposed 'handprint' looked rather deformed compared to what a normal human print would look like?

This is very true... Or it could be that the Baghdad Battery was made by an inventer who couldn't figure out a practical use for the Battery and threw it out.

Nah, they had a use for it. Egyptians used a battery for metal plating. Most likely the people of the Euphrates used it for the same purpose. Personally I think that the Egyptians were very well accustomed to using electrical devices.


by David Criswell

Ancient Egypt is supposed to be one of the first civilizations, but the sophistication of its achievements has long perplexed scientists. The mathematical precision involved in constructing the pyramids is but one such achievement. It was long believed that man had not developed mathematics to the degree that would allow Egyptians to build such structures. And the enigma of the pyramids pales in comparison to other archaeological discoveries.
Above: A vase-like artefact from a 2,000-year-old Parthian town. German archaeologist Wilheilm König and others believe it was a type of battery.



According to Dr Colin Fink of the electro-chemistry department at Columbia University, the ancient Egyptians copper-coated many artefacts using a form of electro-chemical exchange.1 This involved a mixture of chemical elements which, when an object was immersed, caused an electro-chemical charge that deposited the copper permanently on the object.

A Scientific American publication referred to this technique as 'a secret later lost and not rediscovered until the last century by Faraday'.2 By Cleopatra's day, the Parthians had even developed a primitive electric battery.3 The battery used a thin copper disc at the base of a small 10-centimetre (four-inch) cylinder and was used to gold-plate jewellery. Science Digest called this 'man's first industrial use of electricity'.4

I always thought the Egyptian light bulb was interesting. Here is a link:

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/chaptera/

LOL!!

That looks like a lightbulb? Then it also looks like a microphone, or a dildo, but most of all it looks like a pixelated print that could represent anything.

"resembled a transparent glass tube with a form within it that had the likings of a serpent, obviously representing some kind of light source." what unthinking arrogance.

Taken from About.com

The Baghdad Battery
Today batteries can be found in any grocery, drug, convenience and department store you come across. Well, here's a battery that's 2,000 years old! Known as the Baghdad Battery, this curiosity was found in the ruins of a Parthian village believed to date back to between 248 B.C. and 226 A.D. The device consists of a 5-1/2-inch high clay vessel inside of which was a copper cylinder held in place by asphalt, and inside of that was an oxidized iron rod. Experts who examined it concluded that the device needed only to be filled with an acid or alkaline liquid to produce an electric charge. It is believed that this ancient battery might have been used for electroplating objects with gold. If so, how was this technology lost... and the battery not rediscovered for another 1,800 years?



Mythbusters did a thing on this, it actually works... just not very powerfully.

Elgesh']LOL!!

That looks like a lightbulb? Then it also looks like a microphone, or a dildo, but most of all it looks like a pixelated print that could represent anything.

"resembled a transparent glass tube with a form within it that had the likings of a serpent, obviously representing some kind of light source." what unthinking arrogance.


Well the glyph's around this particular image talk of it being a lightsource. That is where possibly they got the idea. Eh?

Freaky.

What about that bronze disc they found in Germany?


got a linky?

got a linky?
Sigh...I'll try get one. Its a genuine artefact, shows quite precise knowledge of constellations. One sec...

Here: http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0401/feature4/

The Ica stones are hoaxes. Chemical analyses show this. Hell, the people who made them fessed up. It's that town's way of making money.

The Ica stones are hoaxes. Chemical analyses show this. Hell, the people who made them fessed up. It's that town's way of making money.

Do you have a link?

Taken from About.com

The Antikythera Mechanism
A perplexing artifact was recovered by sponge-divers from a shipwreck in 1900 off the coast of Antikythera, a small island that lies northwest of Crete. The divers brought up from the wreck a great many marble and and bronze statues that had apparently been the ship's cargo. Among the findings was a hunk of corroded bronze that contained some kind of mechanism composed of many gears and wheels.
Original link http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa011402a.htm

I had heard about this in the book Ancient Inventions and apparently the leading theory is that it was an early computer-like device. Not unfeasible either, my dad told me about a gear-based calculator they brought into his math class when he was in high school many summers ago. I don't doubt the same idea occurred to the Greeks.

Was it just me, or did that supposed 'handprint' looked rather deformed compared to what a normal human print would look like?
It did. The fingers were too short compared to the rest of the hand. Which is why I think it's a reptile of some sort. Many animals have five digits that splay out like that when walking. Even cats and dogs used to have them, their thumbs are just in the middle of their legs now...

http://www.mystae.com/restricted/streams/scripts/vimana.html

Also intriguing.

Sigh...I'll try get one. Its a genuine artefact, shows quite precise knowledge of constellations. One sec...

Here: http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0401/feature4/
Only a little bit of the article is free.

It's basically disks with the constellations on it? Lots of civilizations were knowledgable when it came to the stars. Hell, look at stone henge.

Taken from About.com

The Grooved Spheres
Over the last few decades, miners in South Africa have been digging up mysterious metal spheres. Origin unknown, these spheres measure approximately an inch or so in diameter, and some are etched with three parallel grooves running around the equator. Two types of spheres have been found: one is composed of a solid bluish metal with flecks of white; the other is hollowed out and filled with a spongy white substance. The kicker is that the rock in which they where found is Precambrian - and dated to 2.8 billion years old! Who made them and for what purpose is unknown.

Diamonds are mined from areas of intense geological activity, often from the magma tubes of dead volcanoes, these sphere are little more than the remains of a metal deposit melted byt he extreme heat deep int he crust and carried away by magma flows.

The Dropa Stones
In 1938, an archeological expedition led by Dr. Chi Pu Tei into the Baian-Kara-Ula mountains of China made an astonishing discovery in some caves that had apparently been occupied by some ancient culture. Buried in the dust of ages on the cave floor were hundreds of stone disks. Measuring about nine inches in diameter, each had a circle cut into the center and was etched with a spiral groove, making it look for all the world like some ancient phonograph record some 10,000 to 12,000 years old. The spiral groove, it turns out, is actually composed of tiny hieroglyphics that tell the incredible story of spaceships from some distant world that crash-landed in the mountains. The ships were piloted by people who called themselves the Dropa, and the remains of whose descendents, possibly, were found in the cave.

obviously a hoax, dos ome more research than just one website, these stones have been passed on even by the majority of the UFO community

The Ica Stones
Beginning in the 1930s, the father of Dr. Javier Cabrera, Cultural Anthropologist for Ica, Peru, discovered many hundreds of ceremonial burial stones in the tombs of the ancient Incas. Dr. Cabrera, carrying on his father's work, has collected more than 1,100 of these andesite stones, which are estimated to be between 500 and 1,500 years old and have become known collectively as the Ica Stones. The stones bear etchings, many of which are sexually graphic (which was common to the culture), some picture idols and others depict such practices as open-heart surgery and brain transplants. The most astonishing etchings, however, clearly represent dinosaurs - brontosaurs, triceratops (see photo), stegosaurus and pterosaurs. While skeptics consider the Ica Stones a hoax, their authenticity has neither been proved or disproved.

Another hoax, if something like this has not had its authenticty proved, its safe to say HOAX and move on

The Antikythera Mechanism
A perplexing artifact was recovered by sponge-divers from a shipwreck in 1900 off the coast of Antikythera, a small island that lies northwest of Crete. The divers brought up from the wreck a great many marble and and bronze statues that had apparently been the ship's cargo. Among the findings was a hunk of corroded bronze that contained some kind of mechanism composed of many gears and wheels. Writing on the case indicated that it was made in 80 B.C., and many experts at first thought it was an astrolabe, an astronomer's tool. An x-ray of the mechanism, however, revealed it to be far more complex, containing a sophisticated system of differential gears. Gearing of this complexity was not known to exist until 1575! It is still unknown who constructed this amazing instrument 2,000 years ago or how the technology was lost.

From roughly 400AD to 1400AD the entire european continent, as wella s much of Asia was undergoing what is called 'the dark ages' during which petty struggles among warlords and factions caused innovation to cease entirely and destroyed much knowledge which was not rediscovered until the renaisance

The Baghdad Battery
Today batteries can be found in any grocery, drug, convenience and department store you come across. Well, here's a battery that's 2,000 years old! Known as the Baghdad Battery, this curiosity was found in the ruins of a Parthian village believed to date back to between 248 B.C. and 226 A.D. The device consists of a 5-1/2-inch high clay vessel inside of which was a copper cylinder held in place by asphalt, and inside of that was an oxidized iron rod. Experts who examined it concluded that the device needed only to be filled with an acid or alkaline liquid to produce an electric charge. It is believed that this ancient battery might have been used for electroplating objects with gold. If so, how was this technology lost... and the battery not rediscovered for another 1,800 years?

Again, the Dark Ages are responsible, and as its from the middle east, the crusades probably didn't help any.

The Coso Artifact
While mineral hunting in the mountains of California near Olancha during the winter of 1961, Wallace Lane, Virginia Maxey and Mike Mikesell found a rock, among many others, that they thought was a geode - a good addition for their gem shop. Upon cutting it open, however, Mikesell found an object inside that seemed to be made of white porcelain. In the center was a shaft of shiny metal. Experts estimated that it should have taken about 500,000 years for this fossil-encrusted nodule to form, yet the object inside was obviously of sophisticated human manufacture. Further investigation revealed that the porcelain was surround by a hexagonal casing, and an x-ray revealed a tiny spring at one end. Some who have examined the evidence say it looks very much like a modern-day spark plug. How did it get inside a 500,000-year-old rock?

Another hoax, or at least a case of mistaken identity and improper research, I'm not sure how that image looks anything like any spark plug I've ever seen, and Geodes can be grown in laboratory conditions much faster than in nature, a 500,000 year old natural geode can be grown in a lab in just a few years

Ancient Model Aircraft
There are artifacts belonging to ancient Egyptian and Central American cultures that look amazingly like modern-day aircraft. The Egyptian artifact, found in a tomb at Saqquara, Egypt in 1898, is a six-inch wooden object that strongly resembles a model airplane, with fuselage, wings and tail. Experts believe the object is so aerodynamic that it is actually able to glide. The small object discovered in Central America (shown at right), and estimated to be 1,000 years old, is made of gold and could easily be mistaken for a model of a delta-wing aircraft - or even the Space Shuttle. It even features what looks like a pilot's seat.

Not at all aerodynamic enough to glide, even if it wasn't made of gold and any objects from south america should be subject to some pretty intense inquiry before being called a true artifact, Mezo's have been robbing tombs and forging artifacts almost as long as the egyptians have, whivh brings me to the Egyptian artifact which is quite easily discounted as a fake considering the expertise of egyptians and 17th century archaeologists at forgery

Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica
Workmen hacking and burning their way through the dense jungle of Costa Rica to clear an area for banana plantations in the 1930s stumbled upon some incredible objects: dozens of stone balls, many of which were perfectly spherical. They varied in size from as small as a tennis ball to an astonishing 8 feet in diameter and weighing 16 tons! Although the great stone balls are clearly man-made, it is unknown who made them, for what purpose and, most puzzling, how they achieved such spherical precision.
These are probably Volcano detritus, Its a rare (But not unique) side effect of a volcanic eruptiont hat mateirial forms spheres in free fall before hardening

Impossible Fossils
Fossils, as we learned in grade school, appear in rocks that were formed many thousands of years ago. Yet there are a number of fossils that just don't make geological or historical sense. A fossil of a human handprint, for example, was found in limestone estimated to be 110 million years old. What appears to be a fossilized human finger found in the Canadian Arctic also dates back 100 to 110 million years ago. And what appears to be the fossil of a human footprint, possibly wearing a sandal, was found near Delta, Utah in a shale deposit estimated to be 300 million to 600 million years old.

The hand print shown looks more like plaster or concrete mold than somebody acidentally slipping and catching themselves in mud that later fossilized, its too perfect to be of any ancientness, the canadian finger is probably nothing more than the remains of a pre-historic monkey, the foot print is actually a case of mistaken identity, its not really human but a type of dinosaure living about 450mya thats base foot shape resembles a humans, the toes however were eroded away or were damaged beyond recognition

Out-of-Place Metal Objects
Humans were not even around 65 million years ago, never mind people who could work metal. So then how does science explain semi-ovoid metallic tubes dug out of 65-million-year-old Cretaceous chalk in France? In 1885, a block of coal was broken open to find a metal cube obviously worked by intelligent hands. In 1912, employees at an electric plant broke apart a large chunk of coal out of which fell an iron pot! A nail was found embedded in a sandstone block from the Mesozoic Era. And there are many, many more such anomalies.

The chalk tubes are of natural origin, a rare but not unique geological phenomena, the cube and pot are hoaxs and the nail was probably left by a worker digging the thing out


synopsis, when an article like that says "Obviously worked by human hands" then it probably looks no more like it was 'worked' than any rock you could go out and find in your backyard, there are a lot of natural phenomena that closely resemble somethign that could have been made by man but are of natural origin. If in an article such as this one, an objects authenticity is stated to be even mildly questionable, then the hoax was revealed years ago and they're hoping you don't notice. The Darka ges destroyed much technology that wasn't recreated untilt he renaisance int he 1500s+ so if renaisance era technology is discoved with origins from before around 400AD, then you can bet the darka ges are responsible for the technology being lost.
And finally, from the 1800s to the 1930s there are almost as many hoaxes regarding artifacts and ancient objects as fromt he rest of time beofre and after it, objects discovered int his periosd are subject, espescially originating from central/south america and egypt and other areas with a thriving black market in artifacts

It did. The fingers were too short compared to the rest of the hand. Which is why I think it's a reptile of some sort. Many animals have five digits that splay out like that when walking. Even cats and dogs used to have them, their thumbs are just in the middle of their legs now...

I agree.

Also, the thumb and forefinger seem connected by a lot more tissue or web than you'd find in your average person.

Well the glyph's around this particular image talk of it being a lightsource. That is where possibly they got the idea. Eh?


"For instance, he blatantly forged several pieces of "evidence"... [w]hen confronted with the forgeries by PBS science program NOVA in 1978, Däniken explained that he had a very good reason for the forgeries -- because people wouldn't believe his book otherwise."

http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/mad-science/erich-von-daniken/

"Where is the proof for von Däniken's claims? Some of it was fraudulent...However, most of von Däniken's evidence is in the form of specious and fallacious arguments. His data consists mainly of archaeological sites and ancient myths"

http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc131.htm

"Bad ideas die hard...his ideas have little empirical basis and have been thoroughly debunked by archeologists"

http://www.coastalsurvey.com/magazine/archive/maya2.htm

Here's your man. Be told. Sorry, but this sort of thing offends me.

http://www.mystae.com/restricted/streams/scripts/vimana.html

Also intriguing.

I have heard of this before. It is interesting to say the least. But I do take any type of information coming out of China and Russia with a grain of salt. There are alot of "stories" that come from these two nations. Some are very outlandish. I remember that back in the late 80's or early '90 there was a report of a UFO landing. Made CNN headlines and national and world newspapers. It turned out to be complete crap. But it is a good illustration of how these things are rampant in that part of the world. In the US and Europe most of these stories are shot full of holes before they make it mainstream.

Only a little bit of the article is free.

It's basically disks with the constellations on it? Lots of civilizations were knowledgable when it came to the stars. Hell, look at stone henge.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,942824,00.html

It defies the notion that central Europeans were ignorant and primitive though.

I agree.

Also, the thumb and forefinger seem connected by a lot more tissue or web than you'd find in your average person.
Yeah. It's funny how people will believe quacks who claim these things are definitely human handprints when they could really be anything.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,942824,00.html

It defies the notion that central Europeans were ignorant and primitive though.
I never believed central europeans were ignorant and primitive in the first place.

I have heard of this before. It is interesting to say the least. But I do take any type of information coming out of China and Russia with a grain of salt. There are alot of "stories" that come from these two nations. Some are very outlandish. I remember that back in the late 80's or early '90 there was a report of a UFO landing. Made CNN headlines and national and world newspapers. It turned out to be complete crap. But it is a good illustration of how these things are rampant in that part of the world. In the US and Europe most of these stories are shot full of holes before they make it mainstream.
I agree, its interesting, yet it sounds rather far-fetched.

I never believed central europeans were ignorant and primitive in the first place.
It was a common belief in the historical society though. Nazi attempts to prove germanic racial superiority scared many historians away from touching on the subject of the past of the germanic people. This is changing now.

Elgesh']snip...


By all means you are right in trying to debunk this man if you feel he is full of it. However I have read other sources other than this one. This one really wasnt the main source of information that I have seen. He had a cool video that I wanted to link to. I want any proof on both sides of the arguement. I personally don't like to be decieved. So your links are taken into consideration. Thanks. Will try to find the link im thinking of. Then you can feel free to comment on that too. Healthy skepticism is a good thing.

By all means you are right in trying to debunk this man if you feel he is full of it. However I have read other sources other than this one. This one really wasnt the main source of information that I have seen. He had a cool video that I wanted to link to. I want any proof on both sides of the arguement. I personally don't like to be decieved. So your links are taken into consideration. Thanks. Will try to find the link im thinking of. Then you can feel free to comment on that too. Healthy skepticism is a good thing.

Find a biography of his life that wasn't written for money/fanboi-ism. A liar and a cheat, convicted for fraud, whose main interest is his bank balance. It makes me spit.

I really _am_ sorry I'm being such a bitch about this! :p But... he and people like him are $£&*ing with stuff that I really hold dear, it genuinely hurts me.

Elgesh']Find a biography of his life that wasn't written for money/fanboi-ism. A liar and a cheat, convicted for fraud, whose main interest is his bank balance. It makes me spit.

I really _am_ sorry I'm being such a bitch about this! :p But... he and people like him are $£&*ing with stuff that I really hold dear, it genuinely hurts me.

No problem from me with your comments. I would welcome them anytime. I always like to hear what other people think of these type of subjects. If they can bring real hard facts in either for or against an idea i'm all ears.

Elgesh']snip...


I'm curious if you think it is possible for the Egyptians to create a lightsource?
From my understandings of there ability in mathematics, glass, metallurgy and basic electrical concepts. The main focus of there religion being light. I would think it would be a logical assumption that they tried to produce a light source and even more. Do you agree?

I'm curious if you think it is possible for the Egyptians to create a lightsource?
From my understandings of there ability in mathmatics, glass, metallurgy and basic electrical concepts. The main focus of there religion being light. I would think it would be a logical assumption that they tried to produce a light source and even more. Do you agree?
It is said that much technological knowledge was lost in the passage of the years. The Atlanteans, if they existed, are said to have possessed much sophisticated technology. If such ever existed, its long gone now. Maybe an insight into what will happen to us one day :confused:

Here's Wikipedia on the Ica Stones. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ica_stones

Unfortunately, like several other articles, it suffers on attempts to keep it NPOV.

I'm curious if you think it is possible for the Egyptians to create a lightsource?
From my understandings of there ability in mathematics, glass, metallurgy and basic electrical concepts. The main focus of there religion being light. I would think it would be a logical assumption that they tried to produce a light source and even more. Do you agree?

I bow to your knowledge of standards of Egyptian artisanship!

Assuming what you say is accurate, there's nothing inherently improbable about it. But, there's a story - I won't vouch for the total accuracy of it but I remember it came from a peer-reviewed journal of history: the Greeks may have discovered steam power, the same principles of which powered trains, boats, factories, cooked food in our time.

Know what they did with this knowledge? Got statues of gods to jiggle in a holy way to impress the punters.

Never assume that A) just because a culture _completely_ different to ours had the _ability_ to do something, they did, and B) that their use of it would be _anything_ like ours. The reason it's so unlikely you'll see a Mayan photocopier, a Pictish desktop publisher or an Egyptian light bulb is that those things were made for a certain culture, building on certain inherent limitations and opportunities for commercial, utilitarian, technological and theoretical advances built-in to that culture. Nothing happens in a vaccuum, or in isolation, including scientific advances.

My visceral objections stem from prats like that bloke and all he represents.

Elgesh']
: the Greeks may have discovered steam power, the same principles of which powered trains, boats, factories, cooked food in our time.
Heronas’ steam engine

Heronas of Alexandria was a Greek mathematician, engineer and inventor of the first century BC. He initially worked as shoemaker but he eventually decided to explore his ideas. He is better known as an engineer for his hydraulic mechanisms, simple machines and automations, but he was also an important mathematician of his time. He served as a director of the famous Technical School of Alexandria (maybe the world’s first polytechnic university).
He presented and operated the world’s first steam engine, consisted of a closed, spherical container, filled with water. When the water was heated and began to boil, the stream was relieved by two nozzles, configured in a polar alignment. The container was fixed in such a way that was allowed to rotate. The steam release caused a rotating motion of the container that could be used as a steam motor for various applications. The principle of this simple configuration is the same used today.



This is probably what you are reffering to.

Here is a cool Greek myth that is interesting. Something I notice about Greek myths are that they are based on some sort of fact. I wonder how this applies to this myth.

http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Talos1.html

Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica
Workmen hacking and burning their way through the dense jungle of Costa Rica to clear an area for banana plantations in the 1930s stumbled upon some incredible objects: dozens of stone balls, many of which were perfectly spherical. They varied in size from as small as a tennis ball to an astonishing 8 feet in diameter and weighing 16 tons! Although the great stone balls are clearly man-made, it is unknown who made them, for what purpose and, most puzzling, how they achieved such spherical precision.


This has been disproven, the stones are not perfectly round and the largest was only some five feet in diameter, BTW. And it was broken.
They acheived very-nearly-spherical precision by very slowly chipping the rocks into round-ish shapes, then polishing them with flat rocks. They did it on Discovery channel once, it took them about two days to make one that was ~2ft in diameter with four people.

Here is a cool Greek myth that is interesting. Something I notice about Greek myths are that they are based on some sort of fact. I wonder how this applies to this myth.

http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Talos1.html

'Brazen' gives it away, as does Crete :) Ever read owt of the Iliad? 'Men of bronze' is a favourite example of Homer to describe a soldier, a hoplite. He's actually very rhapsidodic about the metal! 'Ringing bronze', 'shining bronze', 'bloody bronze' - gives an idea of the importance the metal had in that culture at that time. Same with the Sea Peoples - read the description of Goliath in the Bible, and if you ignore the measurements, you see a proto-hoplite fighting David! Or Egypt's run-in with the Sea People...

The main facet of these soldiers was their incredible level of protection and aggression in battle, ideal heavy infantry compared to most other cultures of the time - for their effectiveness, see the Persian invasions.

Talos is a folk memory of the fearsomeness and near-invulnerability a fully armoured early (proto-?) hoplite enjoyed on the battlefield. The ichor bit being a reminder that these fearful being _were_ only men, and _could_ be killed - it was just very, very difficult!

It is said that much technological knowledge was lost in the passage of the years. The Atlanteans, if they existed, are said to have possessed much sophisticated technology. If such ever existed, its long gone now. Maybe an insight into what will happen to us one day :confused:

The Atlantean myth is an interesting one. I still have a hunch that Atlantis or the myth of such a place came from either the Carribean or the Florida area.

Here is another link that you may be interested in. It has to do with Phonecian coins and the map the have of the known earth.

http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/GeogHist/histories/Oldcivilization/phoenicia/america/america.html

Elgesh']'Brazen' gives it away, as does Crete :) Ever read owt of the Iliad? 'Men of bronze' is a favourite example of Homer to describe a soldier, a hoplite. He's actually very rhapsidodic about the metal! 'Ringing bronze', 'shining bronze', 'bloody bronze' - gives an idea of the importance the metal had in that culture at that time. Same with the Sea Peoples - read the description of Goliath in the Bible, and if you ignore the measurements, you see a proto-hoplite fighting David! Or Egypt's run-in with the Sea People...

The main facet of these soldiers was their incredible level of protection and aggression in battle, ideal heavy infantry compared to most other cultures of the time - for their effectiveness, see the Persian invasions.

Talos is a folk memory of the fearsomeness and near-invulnerability a fully armoured early (proto-?) hoplite enjoyed on the battlefield. The ichor bit being a reminder that these fearful being _were_ only men, and _could_ be killed - it was just very, very difficult!

Yes, I did read Homers Iliad. Read that when I was very young and most likely sparked my interests in ancient cultures. Will have to thank my 9th grade enlish teacher for that. But your explanation sounds logical. Would fit how the myth is told. Interesting....

Well, I had a nice, long rebuttal to all of these, however it didn't post(DAMMIT), and so I will only repost to relevant ones(as the others have been responded to in the same basic way I had).


The Dropa Stones

The problem with heiroglyphs is that it is incredibly hard to read them at times, especially if we do not know the heiroglyph's translation. Due to the age of the discs, I am going to(probably rightly) assume, there is no "Rosetta Stone" of sorts, in which we can easily and accurately translate the actual meaning of the glyphs. This leaves the actual translation completely up to speculation, meaning that any "translation" done is subject. More than likely, while "translating" this, the people whom did such went along the lines of "This looks like a planet, it must mean another world!", "This could be a spaceship! Aliens came here!", and so forth and so on. Without a comparative text, it is almost impossible to decipher heiroglyphs(or any language for that matter).


Ancient Model Aircraft
There are artifacts belonging to ancient Egyptian and Central American cultures that look amazingly like modern-day aircraft. The Egyptian artifact, found in a tomb at Saqquara, Egypt in 1898, is a six-inch wooden object that strongly resembles a model airplane, with fuselage, wings and tail. Experts believe the object is so aerodynamic that it is actually able to glide. The small object discovered in Central America (shown at right), and estimated to be 1,000 years old, is made of gold and could easily be mistaken for a model of a delta-wing aircraft - or even the Space Shuttle. It even features what looks like a pilot's seat.

Well, considering that the picture provided on the page only one angle of the object, that only vaguely resembles an airplane(and only if you stretch your imagination), I highly doubt this is really what it looks like. This is likely a case of people wanting to make their case stronger, thus giving only the part of the information that is relavent to them. Had they shown more angles, I'd know for sure.



Out-of-Place Metal Objects


Hoaxes are common in archaeology. So are mistakes. Quarries, also, are probably where most archaeological mistakes occur. They are not worried about preserving sites in pristine, easy to study locations. They grind up the area, destroying any accurate means of calculating dates(using geolgy). Also, the whole breaking it out of rock probably didn't happen like that. Metals tends to erode when exposed to the elements. No amount of luck would change this. The metals would likely have eroded away to something completely unrecognizable over 65 million years. What *probably* happenned, is that they found this tube in with their chalk(Which may have gotten buried somehow-there are easy way of doing this) which may have been discarded by earlier people of the area.

Hoaxes and mistakes are made throughout archaeology. It is expected. However, some mistakes are so blatantly obvious(and some hoaxes), that the only way to portray them is by miscontruing information so as to appease the unknowing masses.

snip..
Actually I don't personally think the models of what appears to be an aircraft found in Egyptian and Incan burials are meant to be aircraft. I think they are meant to be symbolic of birds. Both cultures used bird symbols in a religious context. Therefore a wooden idol made to be birdlike would make sense to me.

The Grooved Spheres
Over the last few decades, miners in South Africa have been digging up mysterious metal spheres. Origin unknown, these spheres measure approximately an inch or so in diameter, and some are etched with three parallel grooves running around the equator. Two types of spheres have been found: one is composed of a solid bluish metal with flecks of white; the other is hollowed out and filled with a spongy white substance. The kicker is that the rock in which they where found is Precambrian - and dated to 2.8 billion years old! Who made them and for what purpose is unknown.

aliens made them

The Dropa Stones
In 1938, an archeological expedition led by Dr. Chi Pu Tei into the Baian-Kara-Ula mountains of China made an astonishing discovery in some caves that had apparently been occupied by some ancient culture. Buried in the dust of ages on the cave floor were hundreds of stone disks. Measuring about nine inches in diameter, each had a circle cut into the center and was etched with a spiral groove, making it look for all the world like some ancient phonograph record some 10,000 to 12,000 years old. The spiral groove, it turns out, is actually composed of tiny hieroglyphics that tell the incredible story of spaceships from some distant world that crash-landed in the mountains. The ships were piloted by people who called themselves the Dropa, and the remains of whose descendents, possibly, were found in the cave.

Communists being mind controlled by aliens

The Ica Stones
Beginning in the 1930s, the father of Dr. Javier Cabrera, Cultural Anthropologist for Ica, Peru, discovered many hundreds of ceremonial burial stones in the tombs of the ancient Incas. Dr. Cabrera, carrying on his father's work, has collected more than 1,100 of these andesite stones, which are estimated to be between 500 and 1,500 years old and have become known collectively as the Ica Stones. The stones bear etchings, many of which are sexually graphic (which was common to the culture), some picture idols and others depict such practices as open-heart surgery and brain transplants. The most astonishing etchings, however, clearly represent dinosaurs - brontosaurs, triceratops (see photo), stegosaurus and pterosaurs. While skeptics consider the Ica Stones a hoax, their authenticity has neither been proved or disproved.

Time traveling aliens

The Antikythera Mechanism
A perplexing artifact was recovered by sponge-divers from a shipwreck in 1900 off the coast of Antikythera, a small island that lies northwest of Crete. The divers brought up from the wreck a great many marble and and bronze statues that had apparently been the ship's cargo. Among the findings was a hunk of corroded bronze that contained some kind of mechanism composed of many gears and wheels. Writing on the case indicated that it was made in 80 B.C., and many experts at first thought it was an astrolabe, an astronomer's tool. An x-ray of the mechanism, however, revealed it to be far more complex, containing a sophisticated system of differential gears. Gearing of this complexity was not known to exist until 1575! It is still unknown who constructed this amazing instrument 2,000 years ago or how the technology was lost.

Kick-ass Greek aliens

The Baghdad Battery
Today batteries can be found in any grocery, drug, convenience and department store you come across. Well, here's a battery that's 2,000 years old! Known as the Baghdad Battery, this curiosity was found in the ruins of a Parthian village believed to date back to between 248 B.C. and 226 A.D. The device consists of a 5-1/2-inch high clay vessel inside of which was a copper cylinder held in place by asphalt, and inside of that was an oxidized iron rod. Experts who examined it concluded that the device needed only to be filled with an acid or alkaline liquid to produce an electric charge. It is believed that this ancient battery might have been used for electroplating objects with gold. If so, how was this technology lost... and the battery not rediscovered for another 1,800 years?

terrorists

The Coso Artifact
While mineral hunting in the mountains of California near Olancha during the winter of 1961, Wallace Lane, Virginia Maxey and Mike Mikesell found a rock, among many others, that they thought was a geode - a good addition for their gem shop. Upon cutting it open, however, Mikesell found an object inside that seemed to be made of white porcelain. In the center was a shaft of shiny metal. Experts estimated that it should have taken about 500,000 years for this fossil-encrusted nodule to form, yet the object inside was obviously of sophisticated human manufacture. Further investigation revealed that the porcelain was surround by a hexagonal casing, and an x-ray revealed a tiny spring at one end. Some who have examined the evidence say it looks very much like a modern-day spark plug. How did it get inside a 500,000-year-old rock?

time traveling people sent back in time by aliens

Ancient Model Aircraft
There are artifacts belonging to ancient Egyptian and Central American cultures that look amazingly like modern-day aircraft. The Egyptian artifact, found in a tomb at Saqquara, Egypt in 1898, is a six-inch wooden object that strongly resembles a model airplane, with fuselage, wings and tail. Experts believe the object is so aerodynamic that it is actually able to glide. The small object discovered in Central America (shown at right), and estimated to be 1,000 years old, is made of gold and could easily be mistaken for a model of a delta-wing aircraft - or even the Space Shuttle. It even features what looks like a pilot's seat.

The Wright Brotehrs (who were really aliens)

Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica
Workmen hacking and burning their way through the dense jungle of Costa Rica to clear an area for banana plantations in the 1930s stumbled upon some incredible objects: dozens of stone balls, many of which were perfectly spherical. They varied in size from as small as a tennis ball to an astonishing 8 feet in diameter and weighing 16 tons! Although the great stone balls are clearly man-made, it is unknown who made them, for what purpose and, most puzzling, how they achieved such spherical precision.

A culture of multi-sized socer/football playing aliens

Impossible Fossils
Fossils, as we learned in grade school, appear in rocks that were formed many thousands of years ago. Yet there are a number of fossils that just don't make geological or historical sense. A fossil of a human handprint, for example, was found in limestone estimated to be 110 million years old. What appears to be a fossilized human finger found in the Canadian Arctic also dates back 100 to 110 million years ago. And what appears to be the fossil of a human footprint, possibly wearing a sandal, was found near Delta, Utah in a shale deposit estimated to be 300 million to 600 million years old.

Adam and Eve made them 6,000 years ago. They were really aliens.

Out-of-Place Metal Objects
Humans were not even around 65 million years ago, never mind people who could work metal. So then how does science explain semi-ovoid metallic tubes dug out of 65-million-year-old Cretaceous chalk in France? In 1885, a block of coal was broken open to find a metal cube obviously worked by intelligent hands. In 1912, employees at an electric plant broke apart a large chunk of coal out of which fell an iron pot! A nail was found embedded in a sandstone block from the Mesozoic Era. And there are many, many more such anomalies.

Metal-working dinosaurs from Pluto

Opinions, thoughts?

yes

Snip....

Just one thought. LOL

What about that bronze disc they found in Germany?
That's real I believe. And pretty cool!

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,942824,00.html
It defies the notion that central Europeans were ignorant and primitive though.
Great article - I got a whole book from the exposition. And a poster ;)

And what about the Piri Reis map? That makes an interesting story! :)

That's real I believe. And pretty cool!


Great article - I got a whole book from the exposition. And a poster ;)

And what about the Piri Reis map? That makes an interesting story! :)

Yes, the Piri Reis map I have heard of. It is very interesting piece of information.

http://www.prep.mcneese.edu/engr/engr321/preis/piri_r~1.htm

Also been checking out the Egyptian-Australian connection

http://www.crystalinks.com/egyptaustralia.html

Yes, the Piri Reis map I have heard of. It is very interesting piece of information.

http://www.prep.mcneese.edu/engr/engr321/preis/piri_r~1.htm

Also been checking out the Egyptian-Australian connection

http://www.crystalinks.com/egyptaustralia.html

Now, if I remember my history correctly, the "Piri Reis" map was likely a hoax. Or at it meets the circumstances of a case I heard of, in which a historian had "found"(Sometime in the 1930's period) a map dating to the same general time period as the Piri Reis. Some guy basically forged an authentic looking map that was, under the pretences, made well before it should have been. If only I could remember the name of whom it was in the case I remember.

As for the Egypt-Australian, that's actually nothing to amazing considering the Egyptian-American connection. Apparently, extremely high amounts of nicotine and cocaine was found in some mummies. Only problem is, these chemicals come from Tobacco and the Coca plant, both of which exist only in America.

http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf111/sf111p01.htm
http://www.shee-eire.com/Misc/Articles/EygyptianHemp/hemp1.htm

It apears America was "discovered" long before either Columbus or the Vikes.

...from the 1800s to the 1930s there are almost as many hoaxes regarding artifacts and ancient objects as fromt he rest of time beofre and after it, objects discovered int his periosd are subject, espescially originating from central/south america and egypt and other areas with a thriving black market in artifacts
This is why I'm always very dubious of any 'amazing' artifact that was discovered in the 19th or very early 20th Century. Most were/are hoaxes.
Also, if they're so amazing, why haven't ppl bothered to test them since?

As for 'The Antikythera Mechanism' saying that it was made in 80BC and 'Gearing of this complexity was not known to exist until 1575!'. Umm actually it did. The Romans were incredibly advanced with gearing. Unfortunately we lost alot of that information and techniques during the dark ages and from the plague. Since most techniquesand skills were taught orally and by practise it was easy to lose these. One generation would do it.

You just have to look at the statues the Romans made. It wasn't until the 15/16 Centuries were ppl coming close to making ones with the same degree of accuracy and skill again. Yet none of these mystery-fruitcakes ever claim that this means the Roman statues must therefore be impossible.



From the site, doncha love their poll:
How can we explain these anomalies?
1. Mankind is much older than we think.
2. Other beings and civilizations existed on earth.
3. Our dating methods are incorrect.
4. None of the above.
5. Not sure.

Great way to skew the results there! Where's the 'It's crap and you know it!' option?

As for the Egypt-Australian, that's actually nothing to amazing considering the Egyptian-American connection. Apparently, extremely high amounts of nicotine and cocaine was found in some mummies. Only problem is, these chemicals come from Tobacco and the Coca plant, both of which exist only in America.

http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf111/sf111p01.htm
http://www.shee-eire.com/Misc/Articles/EygyptianHemp/hemp1.htm

It apears America was "discovered" long before either Columbus or the Vikes.
They also found some old statues in S.America that obviously depict negros and phoenecians.
But again, not surprising. Two men have rowed across the Alantic in 40 days. It's now an annual sporting event! So why are we so surprised to find out that some ppl sailed from N.Africa to S.America 4000years ago?
Our surprise shows more how patronising we are of the past and it's ppl.

They also found some old statues in S.America that obviously depict negros and phoenecians.
But again, not surprising. Two men have rowed across the Alantic in 40 days. It's now an annual sporting event! So why are we so surprised to find out that some ppl sailed from N.Africa to S.America 4000years ago?
Our surprise shows more how patronising we are of the past and it's ppl.

Well, actually, the more favored route would probably have been a Pacific route, having trade of various American products being brought down through China. As for the Statues, which I know exactly what these are, what may have caused this to occur is slavery, as it was used by practically every ancient culture. It's not impossible that Slaves were used for this Trans-oceanic trade(which we know were used in later trade eras), thus introducing a wide variety of peoples and ethnicities to indegenious people.

It's also not a mystery that such a trade could go forgotten. Very few probably knew of such a route, which when people die off, so did the route. Over time, all knowledge that such a route could just disappear into obscurity.

Of course, there are other plausible explanations, as well.

Now, if I remember my history correctly, the "Piri Reis" map was likely a hoax. Or at it meets the circumstances of a case I heard of, in which a historian had "found"(Sometime in the 1930's period) a map dating to the same general time period as the Piri Reis. Some guy basically forged an authentic looking map that was, under the pretences, made well before it should have been. If only I could remember the name of whom it was in the case I remember.

As for the Egypt-Australian, that's actually nothing to amazing considering the Egyptian-American connection. Apparently, extremely high amounts of nicotine and cocaine was found in some mummies. Only problem is, these chemicals come from Tobacco and the Coca plant, both of which exist only in America.

http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf111/sf111p01.htm
http://www.shee-eire.com/Misc/Articles/EygyptianHemp/hemp1.htm

It apears America was "discovered" long before either Columbus or the Vikes.

That is very curious about the Cocoa and Tobacco. Do you not think that perhaps some plants would have been brought for domestic consuption? Tobacco and Cocoa would have been as lucrative trade as it is today.

Taken from About.com

The Grooved Spheres
Over the last few decades, miners in South Africa have been digging up mysterious metal spheres. Origin unknown, these spheres measure approximately an inch or so in diameter, and some are etched with three parallel grooves running around the equator. Two types of spheres have been found: one is composed of a solid bluish metal with flecks of white; the other is hollowed out and filled with a spongy white substance. The kicker is that the rock in which they where found is Precambrian - and dated to 2.8 billion years old! Who made them and for what purpose is unknown.

The Dropa Stones
In 1938, an archeological expedition led by Dr. Chi Pu Tei into the Baian-Kara-Ula mountains of China made an astonishing discovery in some caves that had apparently been occupied by some ancient culture. Buried in the dust of ages on the cave floor were hundreds of stone disks. Measuring about nine inches in diameter, each had a circle cut into the center and was etched with a spiral groove, making it look for all the world like some ancient phonograph record some 10,000 to 12,000 years old. The spiral groove, it turns out, is actually composed of tiny hieroglyphics that tell the incredible story of spaceships from some distant world that crash-landed in the mountains. The ships were piloted by people who called themselves the Dropa, and the remains of whose descendents, possibly, were found in the cave.

The Ica Stones
Beginning in the 1930s, the father of Dr. Javier Cabrera, Cultural Anthropologist for Ica, Peru, discovered many hundreds of ceremonial burial stones in the tombs of the ancient Incas. Dr. Cabrera, carrying on his father's work, has collected more than 1,100 of these andesite stones, which are estimated to be between 500 and 1,500 years old and have become known collectively as the Ica Stones. The stones bear etchings, many of which are sexually graphic (which was common to the culture), some picture idols and others depict such practices as open-heart surgery and brain transplants. The most astonishing etchings, however, clearly represent dinosaurs - brontosaurs, triceratops (see photo), stegosaurus and pterosaurs. While skeptics consider the Ica Stones a hoax, their authenticity has neither been proved or disproved.

The Antikythera Mechanism
A perplexing artifact was recovered by sponge-divers from a shipwreck in 1900 off the coast of Antikythera, a small island that lies northwest of Crete. The divers brought up from the wreck a great many marble and and bronze statues that had apparently been the ship's cargo. Among the findings was a hunk of corroded bronze that contained some kind of mechanism composed of many gears and wheels. Writing on the case indicated that it was made in 80 B.C., and many experts at first thought it was an astrolabe, an astronomer's tool. An x-ray of the mechanism, however, revealed it to be far more complex, containing a sophisticated system of differential gears. Gearing of this complexity was not known to exist until 1575! It is still unknown who constructed this amazing instrument 2,000 years ago or how the technology was lost.

The Baghdad Battery
Today batteries can be found in any grocery, drug, convenience and department store you come across. Well, here's a battery that's 2,000 years old! Known as the Baghdad Battery, this curiosity was found in the ruins of a Parthian village believed to date back to between 248 B.C. and 226 A.D. The device consists of a 5-1/2-inch high clay vessel inside of which was a copper cylinder held in place by asphalt, and inside of that was an oxidized iron rod. Experts who examined it concluded that the device needed only to be filled with an acid or alkaline liquid to produce an electric charge. It is believed that this ancient battery might have been used for electroplating objects with gold. If so, how was this technology lost... and the battery not rediscovered for another 1,800 years?

The Coso Artifact
While mineral hunting in the mountains of California near Olancha during the winter of 1961, Wallace Lane, Virginia Maxey and Mike Mikesell found a rock, among many others, that they thought was a geode - a good addition for their gem shop. Upon cutting it open, however, Mikesell found an object inside that seemed to be made of white porcelain. In the center was a shaft of shiny metal. Experts estimated that it should have taken about 500,000 years for this fossil-encrusted nodule to form, yet the object inside was obviously of sophisticated human manufacture. Further investigation revealed that the porcelain was surround by a hexagonal casing, and an x-ray revealed a tiny spring at one end. Some who have examined the evidence say it looks very much like a modern-day spark plug. How did it get inside a 500,000-year-old rock?

Ancient Model Aircraft
There are artifacts belonging to ancient Egyptian and Central American cultures that look amazingly like modern-day aircraft. The Egyptian artifact, found in a tomb at Saqquara, Egypt in 1898, is a six-inch wooden object that strongly resembles a model airplane, with fuselage, wings and tail. Experts believe the object is so aerodynamic that it is actually able to glide. The small object discovered in Central America (shown at right), and estimated to be 1,000 years old, is made of gold and could easily be mistaken for a model of a delta-wing aircraft - or even the Space Shuttle. It even features what looks like a pilot's seat.

Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica
Workmen hacking and burning their way through the dense jungle of Costa Rica to clear an area for banana plantations in the 1930s stumbled upon some incredible objects: dozens of stone balls, many of which were perfectly spherical. They varied in size from as small as a tennis ball to an astonishing 8 feet in diameter and weighing 16 tons! Although the great stone balls are clearly man-made, it is unknown who made them, for what purpose and, most puzzling, how they achieved such spherical precision.

Impossible Fossils
Fossils, as we learned in grade school, appear in rocks that were formed many thousands of years ago. Yet there are a number of fossils that just don't make geological or historical sense. A fossil of a human handprint, for example, was found in limestone estimated to be 110 million years old. What appears to be a fossilized human finger found in the Canadian Arctic also dates back 100 to 110 million years ago. And what appears to be the fossil of a human footprint, possibly wearing a sandal, was found near Delta, Utah in a shale deposit estimated to be 300 million to 600 million years old.

Out-of-Place Metal Objects
Humans were not even around 65 million years ago, never mind people who could work metal. So then how does science explain semi-ovoid metallic tubes dug out of 65-million-year-old Cretaceous chalk in France? In 1885, a block of coal was broken open to find a metal cube obviously worked by intelligent hands. In 1912, employees at an electric plant broke apart a large chunk of coal out of which fell an iron pot! A nail was found embedded in a sandstone block from the Mesozoic Era. And there are many, many more such anomalies.

Opinions, thoughts?

Original link http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa011402a.htm
I've heard about the mechanism, the battery, and the spheres. The mechanism is impressive, and indicates that our ancestors had some neat technological tricks up their sleeves. The battery equally so. Probably used for electroplating metal. The spheres were recreated on a show I saw using the same stone technology that the original makers used. It wasn't too difficult to make the spheres spherical.

And the Romans supposedly landed in the Americas. The Hebrews in Australia...I'm not saying it never happened, but it is debated.

And the Romans supposedly landed in the Americas. The Hebrews in Australia...I'm not saying it never happened, but it is debated.

Absolutely, this is why this thread is still going. There are some good debates that have already taken form here. Alot of people are interested in this than I initially thought. But facts are always the best way to prove something for sure. There are some odd facts out there about our past. It is fun to speculate on how they happened.