00:00ancient super weapons we still can't recreate when you think of ancient warfare what comes to mind
00:06swords spears maybe some big wooden shields well what if i told you that some ancient civilizations
00:13were packing heat so advanced it sounds like science fiction we're talking about everything
00:19from naval flamethrowers to city defense systems that could literally pluck ships from the sea
00:25some of these weapons were terrifyingly real while others blur the line between history and legend
00:31but they all have one thing in common they were so sophisticated that even with all our modern tech
00:36we're still scratching our heads we like to think of history as a straight line of progress where each
00:42generation gets smarter and more advanced but sometimes knowledge gets lost and few lost
00:48technologies are as captivating or as deadly as these weapons these aren't just rusty swords and
00:54broken spears these are feats of engineering and chemistry that challenge our assumptions
00:58they prove our ancestors were far more ingenious than we often give them credit for
01:04so today we're counting down five ancient super weapons we can't quite duplicate uncovering lost
01:11secrets of a violent brilliant past coming in at number five we have a weapon born from paranoia and
01:18genius the so-called universal antidote mithridatium in the ancient world poison was an assassin
01:24best friend it was subtle deniable and incredibly effective for one king mithridates the sick of
01:31pontus who lived in the first century bc this threat became an obsession fearing he'd be poisoned
01:37a reasonable fear for a ruler back then he started a strange and dangerous daily ritual according to
01:44ancient writers like pliny the elder mithridates began taking tiny non-lethal doses of poisons every day
01:51he was trying to build up an immunity but he didn't stop there he was also on a quest to
01:56create
01:56a master antidote the resulting formula named mithridatium was legendary and said to contain
02:02dozens of exotic ingredients the recipe was so prized that when pompey the great conquered his kingdom
02:07he supposedly nabbed the formula as a top spoil of war the legend inspired later roman physicians like
02:15emperor nero's doctor andromachus who developed his own antidote theriac so why can't we just whip up a
02:22batch first a single universal antidote is seen as impossible by modern science different poisons
02:29attack the body in wildly different ways more importantly the exact original formula is lost we
02:35don't know the precise ingredients proportions or preparation methods it remains a testament to a lost
02:41mastery of toxicology at number four is a weapon that introduced a terrifying new concept to the
02:47battlefield rapid fire the chinese repeating crossbow picture this a line of soldiers armed
02:54with crossbows that don't need to be painstakingly reloaded one shot at a time instead they can fire off
03:00a volley of 10 bolts in under 15 seconds that was the power of the repeating crossbow an invention
03:07traditionally credited to the brilliant third century ad military strategist zugei liang though
03:13archaeological finds suggest it may have existed centuries earlier its design was brilliantly simple
03:20a boxy magazine on top held a stack of bolts a single lever action did all the work pulling the
03:27lever
03:27back drew the bowstring and dropped a bolt into place pushing it forward fired it now it wasn't a perfect
03:34weapon it traded power and range for that incredible speed so it wasn't great against heavy armor unless
03:40the bolts were tipped with poison its psychological impact was huge a small group of soldiers could
03:47unleash a hail of arrows that would terrify and overwhelm an enemy advance so if we can build replicas
03:54why is it on this list because we can copy the weapon but we can't fully replicate the ancient system
04:01that made it so effective the knowledge of how to mass produce these weapons cheaply and reliably
04:07and the logistical genius required to equip and train entire units to use them in combat
04:13is a science that isn't fully captured in the surviving artifacts
04:17our number three entry isn't a single weapon it's the legendary material used to craft history's greatest blades
04:24damascus steel famed from the early middle ages into the 18th century swords made from damascus steel
04:32were things of legend supposedly sharp enough to slice silk falling through the air yet so tough and flexible
04:39they could bend without shattering these blades are instantly recognizable by their beautiful watery swirl
04:46pattern known as the damask for centuries smiths in damascus syria held the secret to this amazing metal
04:55they used woods steel imported from india through a closely guarded process of forging and heat treatment
05:02they turned this steel into legendary blades then around the 18th century the process vanished no one
05:09knows for sure why some think the mines producing the unique ore ran out others believe secret techniques
05:16died with the last smiths modern scientists discovered these blades have a unique internal microstructure
05:22it contains incredibly hard cementite nanowires this helps explain their mix of hardness and flexibility
05:30while today's smiths make high quality steel with similar properties no one has definitively
05:35reproduced the original ancient method the exact formula remains a tantalizing historical puzzle
05:42coming in at number two is a weapon so wild it sounds like something from a monster movie
05:46the claw of archimedes during the second punic war around 214 bc the mighty roman navy sailed to syracuse
05:55expecting an easy conquest they were not prepared for the mind of one man archimedes the celebrated
06:02mathematician had turned his city's defenses into deadly surprises according to ancient historians the most
06:09fearsome of these was the claw it was a massive crane-like beam when roman ships got too close the
06:15claw would swing down grab the ship's bow and lift the vessel the result was chaos ships were violently
06:23overturned and sunk or smashed against the rocks for the roman soldiers it must have felt like they were
06:29being attacked by a sea monster so did it really exist that's where the debate heats up we only have
06:37written accounts of historians modern attempts to build working models have had mixed results
06:44while some show the principle is plausible making one strong and fast enough for combat against a
06:49moving ship is another matter entirely we know the stories terrified the romans but we don't know
06:55exactly how archimedes engineered it pretty wild right it really makes you rethink what was possible back
07:01then and at number one we have the most infamous and mysterious weapon of the ancient world greek fire
07:10imagine a fire that laughed at water a sticky liquid flame that clung to ships and sailors and according
07:16to some accounts only burned more intensely when you tried to douse it this was the terrifying reality of
07:23greek fire the ultimate secret weapon of the byzantine empire first appearing in the seventh century this
07:30incendiary weapon was credited with saving the capital city constantinople from massive naval invasions
07:36multiple times it was typically launched from bronze tubes on byzantine warships acting like ancient
07:42flamethrowers a pressurized stream of liquid fire would shoot out with a roar engulfing enemy ships in a
07:50substance that was nearly impossible to extinguish its effect on naval warfare was devastating it allowed the
07:56smaller byzantine navy to defeat much larger fleets and spread fear across the mediterranean for centuries
08:03the secret to greek fire was one of the most closely guarded in history according to one tradition the
08:09formula was known only to the byzantine emperors and a single family of chemists this secrecy was so
08:16effective that when the empire eventually declined the secret was lost forever to this day we still don't
08:22know the exact chemical recipe historians and chemists believe it was a petroleum-based mixture
08:28probably with ingredients like naphtha pine resin and maybe sulfur or quicklime but while we can make
08:35modern substances with similar properties like napalm no one has managed to perfectly replicate a
08:41mixture that matches all of the historical descriptions the specific devastating formula of the byzantines
08:47went to the grave with the empire from chemical warfare to rapid fire crossbows these five examples
08:54show us that the past wasn't as primitive as we sometimes imagine the minds of our ancestors were
09:01innovative resourceful and in some cases capable of creating technologies that continue to baffle us
09:08these weapons are a powerful reminder that history is full of secrets and that we have likely lost as
09:14much knowledge as we have gained they stand as monuments to the lost genius of the ancient world
09:20so which of these ancient super weapons do you think was the most effective or is there another
09:26lost weapon you think should have been on this list let us know your thoughts in the comments below
09:32we read every single one and if you enjoyed uncovering these historical mysteries don't forget to like
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09:46dive into the past thanks for watching
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