- 22 hours ago
Join us on an extraordinary journey through time as we explore two remarkable stories from ancient history.
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00:00You're an adventurer looking for a golden hourglass hidden in the jungle of an exotic country.
00:06Finally, you find the artifact.
00:08Someone starts shouting as soon as you grab it.
00:11Stop! This is the police! Hands up!
00:14You look around and see two officers.
00:16You turn the hourglass over and fall into a suddenly formed portal that takes you through space and time.
00:24Hey, you! Stranger! Don't move! What are you doing in our temple?
00:28You look around and see two guys with swords.
00:31They're the police of ancient Babylon.
00:34The vast kingdom in Mesopotamia was the first in history to invent a list of laws and punishments for their
00:41violation.
00:42The list of these laws was called the Code of Hammurabi and contained 282 laws.
00:48They were carved on stone pillars around the 10th century BCE.
00:52The laws had rules about the family and behavior in society and, generally, were similar to the laws of modern
00:59civilizations.
01:00The authorities of Babylon created special police squads consisting of locals.
01:05Their goal was to monitor public order and ensure no one broke the law.
01:10Some records of the squad's work have survived to this day.
01:14They talk about how the ancient police stopped noisy feasts, monitored tax payments, and searched for thieves and looters.
01:21In general, their routine was similar to the routine of modern police.
01:26They guarded temples and made sure that nothing was taken from them.
01:30You're now in their temple, holding the golden hourglass.
01:33The sand pours down, and you teleport to another place.
01:37It's the 14th century.
01:39You're in Nigeria, on a hot plain under the scorching sun.
01:43You hear someone approaching you from behind.
01:46Stop. Don't move.
01:48Your fate will be decided at the meeting.
01:50Two Okonkou guards, members of the Ibu ethnic group, walked to you holding spears.
01:57Okonkou consisted of rich and poor people, young and old.
02:00They were the judges of justice and ensured that no one violated the laws.
02:05Each village had its own Okonkou squad.
02:09They severely punished those who cheated or harmed other people.
02:13Okonkou also solved land disputes.
02:16Before passing a verdict or sentence, Okonkou discussed it at public meetings.
02:21You haven't broken their law, but you're a stranger in their village, so they want to grab you.
02:27Fortunately, the hourglass transports you out of there.
02:30Now you're inside a temple in ancient Egypt.
02:33You hear barking dogs, screaming monkeys, and human voices.
02:38Who are you?
02:39You turn around and see the Mijay, the police of the middle kingdom of ancient Egypt.
02:44These experienced guys with swords patrolled the streets with dogs and even monkeys.
02:49They were residents of the neighboring kingdom of Nubia.
02:53Still, as the territory of Egypt expanded, they offered their services as the guardians of order.
02:59During the new kingdom, the temple priests of Egypt performed police functions.
03:03They protected temples and caught looters and thieves.
03:06If someone stole something from a temple, temple priests arrested the thief and conducted their own investigation.
03:13They won't investigate anything this time as you disappear and continue your journey.
03:19You're in a hot jungle now.
03:21You can see large stone buildings through bushes and trees and hear a flowing river and people's voices.
03:27You're next to a large agricultural area.
03:30It looks like a modern civilization in a tropical forest.
03:33But this is the 15th century, and you're in the Incan Empire on the South American coast.
03:39Police officers are called Tokri Koks here, which means the one who sees everything.
03:45Two Kokri Koks pass by you and don't tell you anything.
03:48The Incan Empire had a developed legal system, and no one could arrest you just like that.
03:55The one who accused another person of violating the law had to be above the rank of the accused.
04:01Therefore, Tokri Koks were the most senior people in cities.
04:04They kept order and also conducted a population census.
04:08Their duties also included the distribution of land and the construction of roads and bridges.
04:13They held all court proceedings publicly and punished those who committed serious violations.
04:19But for petty hooliganism, people were just subjected to public censure.
04:24Here, you feel safe thanks to the harsh but fair laws.
04:28But the hourglass is restless and takes you to...
04:32Ancient Greece.
04:33And to be honest, you're out of luck, because the cryptia of Sparta is in charge here.
04:38These tough guys got trained in duels from an early age and developed incredible strength and endurance.
04:45Yeah, everything is as we've seen it in the movies.
04:48The cryptia means hidden.
04:50This police force always acted cautiously and quietly to deliver a crushing blow.
04:56They didn't have armors or big swords.
04:58They were wearing light clothes and had sharp knives.
05:01The cryptia kept order and made sure farmers paid taxes and shared their harvest.
05:07Also, the cryptia suppressed any rebellions among people.
05:11Unlike the people in other countries, the cryptia worked at night and rested during the day.
05:16Well, it's daytime, so no one will arrest you.
05:19But if it were night, you would hardly be able to escape from the Spartan police.
05:27You teleport to ancient Judea, where a fair judicial system was highly valued.
05:32Each city had its judge and two trained soldiers under their command.
05:36They were called Judean shotarim.
05:39These fighters were excellent at archery and sword fights.
05:43Their duties included checking and setting market prices and resolving private property and public safety issues.
05:49Dogs in every house should be chained.
05:52There should be no pits on the street.
05:54And the sale of knives and swords should be strictly regulated.
05:57Any violation of the law was investigated and dealt with in court.
06:01The locals really appreciated this order and paid for it as taxpayers.
06:07Now the golden hourglass takes you to 15th century West Africa.
06:11You're in the Songhai Empire.
06:13This was one of the largest countries in West Africa with first-class police called the Khadi.
06:19Serious violations were punished cruelly, so people were afraid to break the law.
06:24The Khadi were government officials appointed by the king.
06:27They decided who to court-martial and who to punish with a small fine.
06:32They monitored not only the order in cities, but also the environment of the king.
06:37If someone wanted to commit treason or overthrow the ruler, the Khadi found out about it and neutralized the threat.
06:46Now, you find yourself in a very hot place.
06:49But not because the sun is scorching, but because there are flames everywhere.
06:54The building you're in is on fire, and you don't know what to do.
06:58At that moment, two guys run inside and pull you out.
07:02They just saved your life.
07:03Meet the Wigilus, the police of the Roman Empire.
07:07More precisely, they were firefighters.
07:09In 21 BCE, the Roman emperor ordered his subjects to extinguish fires in the homes of the nobility and ordinary
07:17poor people.
07:18For this, the emperor received praise and decided to create the first public fire service in Rome.
07:25The Wigilus patrolled the streets and extinguished fires caused by hot weather or hooligans.
07:31Soon, the Wigilus began to keep order and catch robbers.
07:34They wore light armor and had whips and staffs.
07:37You don't have time to thank them for saving your life because the hourglass takes you to another era.
07:44The Mauryan Empire, which lasted from 321 to 185 BCE, was the first empire of ancient India.
07:52You don't have time to do anything as two big guys grab you and blindfold you with a rag.
07:58They're taking you to interrogation.
08:00Every city in this state had a police chief and his team called gops.
08:05They did all the police work and spied for the emperor.
08:08They looked for other spies, registered new visitors, and followed them.
08:13They patrolled the streets, kept order, and knew everything happening in the cities.
08:18They're going to put you in a cage, but you disappear right from their hands.
08:22You've finally returned to the 21st century.
08:25There's no more sand in the top part of the hourglass.
08:28So, you ponder committing a small robbery to see how modern-day police will respond.
08:33But then the hourglass reappears and drops you into prison so you can get a close-up view.
08:39Then, you wake up.
08:42It's 1898, and you're taking part in excavations in Saqqara.
08:47This place, not far away from Cairo, is full of ancient tombs and pyramids.
08:53You're in your Indiana Jones mood and hope to find something really phenomenal to become famous.
08:59Gold, manuscripts, treasure maps, mummies of famous pharaohs.
09:04Wait, a wooden bird?
09:05You're really disappointed, as it looks like a regular toy.
09:09An old one, but still.
09:12Little do you know that years later, someone would propose that your bird was actually an ancient monoplane.
09:21So, the artifact, nicknamed the Saqqara bird, is made of a sycamore tree.
09:26The birdie has a wingspan of just 7 inches and weighs around 40 grams.
09:31A perfect original souvenir from Egypt, I would say.
09:35It's over 2,000 years old and looks pretty plain, without any carvings of feathers or other intricate ornaments.
09:42It has a beak and eyes, though, which makes our find look like a hawk, the emblem of the deity
09:49Horus.
09:50Its tail is rather unusual, as it's squared, looks weirdly upright, and it seems like the sunken part of it
09:57was the place for a now-missing piece.
10:02Humans love solving a good mystery, so there have been several attempts to explain the use of the birdie.
10:08First, quite simply, is that it was a ceremonial object.
10:12The second idea is that it was a toy for a child from some well-off family.
10:17It could have been some sort of boomerang, which was a popular concept in ancient Egypt.
10:23Then, there was a theory that the bird had been used as a weather vane.
10:27But this one has been debunked, as the figure doesn't have any holes or markings,
10:32except for the one made at the museum in Cairo to fix the exhibit on a stick.
10:37So, there was no way to hang it in the past.
10:41Almost a century after the bird was found,
10:44Egyptologist Dr. Khalil Masiha proposed a new theory that it could have been a model of a monoplane.
10:51He believed the bird was missing a horizontal tailplane.
10:55Otherwise, it had its wings set at a right angle, similar to that of modern planes.
11:00It could have worked to generate the aerodynamic lift necessary for flights.
11:05Dr. Masiha also claimed that it was common at that time.
11:10To place miniature models of technological inventions in tombs.
11:14So, did the ancient Egyptians really invent the plane in 200 BCE?
11:20That would make the Wright brothers, who are considered the inventors of aviation, really, really upset.
11:28They made one of their first flights only in 1903.
11:34There's just one way to know for sure, and that is to test the model.
11:38But, you know, the ancient museum in Cairo would unlikely let one of their cherished exhibits fly around like a
11:45toy.
11:46That's why glider designer Martin Gregory built a similar model, this time of balsa wood,
11:52and concluded that even with the missing tailplane, the plane wasn't much of a flyer.
11:58Case solved?
11:58Not really.
12:00This didn't sound convincing enough to the History Channel, so they invited an aerodynamics expert to build another replica of
12:08the bird.
12:09He tested it in weather conditions similar to those in Egypt and was impressed with the little plane's abilities.
12:18So, if they did invent the prototype of a plane back in the times of pharaohs, it would be a
12:23good example of an upart.
12:25That's an out-of-place artifact, an object that's way ahead of its time in terms of technology or history.
12:32And the Saqqara bird isn't the only example of such a revolutionary concept.
12:38In 1901, a group of divers retrieved the Antikythera mechanism from an underwater shipwreck near the Greek island of Antikythera.
12:47It's been dubbed the world's first analog computer, and it's currently dated around 100 BCE.
12:54The bronze mechanism could tell the position of the sun, moon, planets, and stars, as well as the lunar phase,
13:02the dates of upcoming solar eclipses,
13:04and even the speed at which the moon moves through the sky.
13:09No one's sure who used it and how or where it was made,
13:14but it's obvious that it's extremely precise and way too advanced for its time.
13:20The first flushing toilets in the world were invented in the middle of the 20th century.
13:25Just kidding.
13:26The ancient Minoans on the Mediterranean island of Crete and the Indus Valley civilization
13:32both came up with this brilliant invention at the same time, around 4,000 years ago.
13:37The plumbing and sanitation were so well done
13:41that no one managed to design anything better until 2,000 years later.
13:45One ancient Minoan lavatory was discovered at the Palace of Knossos.
13:52It looks like it had a wooden seat set over a tunnel
13:55that directed water from a rooftop reservoir to an underground sewer.
14:00Other varieties got water from jugs.
14:03Only the super-rich people could afford all this glory.
14:07So if you wanted to shop for real estate back then,
14:10the flushing toilet would be a tell-tale sign you were in the rich neighborhood.
14:17Automated doors became a cool, seemingly new invention back in 1931.
14:22But the technology behind them is actually much older.
14:27Think the 1st century CE old.
14:31Mathematician and engineer, Heron of Alexandria,
14:35came up with a hydraulic system to open and close temple doors.
14:40To bring it into action, you need to light a fire to produce heat.
14:45There was a brass pot under the fire, half filled with water.
14:49The inventor connected the brass pot to containers that acted as weights.
14:54When the fire was burning, the water moved into the containers.
14:58They went down and pulled the ropes.
15:01It was nothing like a supermarket door that opens in front of you
15:04before you even have time to think.
15:07Heron's door took hours to open.
15:10And there was no way to stop the process.
15:13That's why they only opened the doors once a day before people entered the temple
15:17to add some mysticism at the temple during ceremonies.
15:21Spooky!
15:23Looks like the first ever battery was invented in Baghdad around 2,000 years ago.
15:30A German archaeologist found this oval-shaped clay jar in 1938.
15:36Scientists are still not sure what purpose it served and who exactly invented it.
15:42There is a theory that it was used for electroplating objects with precious metals.
15:46When they filled it with a weak acid like vinegar,
15:49the battery produced around 1 volt of electricity.
15:53Another theory says it was a vessel for sacred scrolls.
15:58Would you like to buy contact lenses designed by Leonardo da Vinci himself?
16:03In 1508, he invented a glass lens with a funnel on one side.
16:08You were supposed to wear it with water inside to improve your vision.
16:12Sounds a bit uncomfortable, doesn't it?
16:15So, around a century later, French scientist René Descartes decided to improve the idea
16:22and make the cornea contact the future lenses.
16:26Contacts because they contact your eyes, get it?
16:29The glass tube with liquid did help improve vision, but blinking was sadly impossible.
16:35Two and a half centuries later, new technologies in the glass industry
16:39let scientists design contacts that would fit in the eye and even let the wearer blink.
16:45Thanks, guys!
16:46Still, those lenses were made of heavy blown glass and didn't let the eye breathe.
16:52About 50 years later, contacts became plastic.
16:55Lightweight, unbreakable, and scratch-resistant, but still covering the entire eye.
17:00And then, in 1948, an English optical technician accidentally sanded down a plastic lens
17:07and figured out they'd still be in place even if they covered only the cornea.
17:12Imagine you're living in 19th century London and need to send a message to New York.
17:17It would have taken about 10 days to get there by ship.
17:21So, when delivery time went from days to hours in 1858, it was a true sensation.
17:27The first message was sent by Queen Victoria herself.
17:31It was all made possible thanks to the transatlantic telegraph cable running under the ocean.
17:38Sadly, the new cool invention only lasted a few weeks.
17:41It took years to bring it back to life.
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