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Ready to have your mind blown? We're uncovering 7 ancient artifacts that challenge everything we know about history! From Egypt's impossible granite boxes to India's rust-proof iron pillar and the mysterious Antikythera Mechanism, these real museum pieces prove the ancients were lightyears ahead. Hit subscribe for more wild mysteries, and tell us in the comments which artifact amazed you most! #history #mystery #ancient #science #technology
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@noelpolotv
0:00 - Introduction to Ancient Artifacts
1:24 - The Serapeum's Mysterious Granite Boxes
5:48 - The Antikythera Mechanism: Ancient Greek Technology
9:53 - India's Rust-Resistant Iron Pillar
12:52 - Roman Color-Changing Glass: The Lycurgus Cup
16:01 - Baghdad Battery: Ancient Electricity
18:39 - The Sabu Disk: Egypt's Mysterious Stone Disk
21:03 - Terracotta Army: Secret of Bronze Blades
24:07 - Conclusion and Reflection
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@noelpolotv
0:00 - Introduction to Ancient Artifacts
1:24 - The Serapeum's Mysterious Granite Boxes
5:48 - The Antikythera Mechanism: Ancient Greek Technology
9:53 - India's Rust-Resistant Iron Pillar
12:52 - Roman Color-Changing Glass: The Lycurgus Cup
16:01 - Baghdad Battery: Ancient Electricity
18:39 - The Sabu Disk: Egypt's Mysterious Stone Disk
21:03 - Terracotta Army: Secret of Bronze Blades
24:07 - Conclusion and Reflection
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LearningTranscript
00:00There are 25 giant granite containers buried beneath the sands of Egypt, each weighing up to 100 tons.
00:10No engineer in the world can fully explain how these were made.
00:15Meanwhile, in India, there is an iron pillar that hasn't rusted for over 16 centuries, whereas modern iron can rust
00:25in just a few years.
00:26An ancient battery was also found in Iraq, made 2,000 years before the modern battery was even invented.
00:36These things aren't easily included in textbooks because textbooks were written based only on what people knew at that time.
00:44Today, we're going to look at 7 genuine ancient artifacts that were found, and each one seems like it was
00:52left behind by time travelers from the future.
00:54And we'll start with a mystery that is literally hard to explain.
00:59All 7 of these objects can be seen and touched.
01:05Each one is on display in a real museum, and all of them shatter our usual picture of ancient times.
01:13But before we get started, if you are new to our channel, please hit that subscribe button and turn on
01:19the notification bell so you are always updated on our latest videos.
01:24Egypt, Saqqara, year 1850
01:28French archaeologist Auguste Mariette noticed a stone sphinx partially protruding from the sand northwest of the pyramid of Djoser.
01:38After he excavated an entire avenue lined with sphinxes, he realized that they led to the entrance of a massive
01:45underground structure.
01:47When his team made it inside, they had to use dynamite because the passages were tightly sealed.
01:54Inside, an enormous labyrinth welcomed them, featuring stone walls and long tunnels carved directly into the bedrock.
02:01In the largest gallery, on either side of the passage, there were a total of 25 gigantic boxes carved from
02:10black and pink granite.
02:11Each box was 4 meters long, 2.5 meters wide, and 3.3 meters high.
02:18The lid alone weighed 30 tons, while the total weight of the container reached nearly 100 tons.
02:25That is almost as heavy as a fully loaded railway carriage, yet it was hidden in a tight underground chamber.
02:32When Mariette blasted open one of the boxes using explosives, he found nothing inside, just empty space and smooth walls.
02:40According to the official explanation, this place is called the Serapium, and it is said that the sacred Apis bulls
02:48were buried here.
02:49But there's one big problem.
02:52Not a single open box contained the remains of a bull or even any trace of a mummification process.
02:59But they discovered something even more astonishing, the extremely high precision with which the stone was crafted.
03:05Engineer Christopher Dunn, who has worked for 49 years in high-tech manufacturing, measured the inside of two boxes.
03:13He used industrial measuring equipment with a tolerance of 2 ten-thousandths of an inch.
03:18And it turned out that the walls were extremely flat, to a degree typically achieved only by using computer software
03:26-controlled machines.
03:28The angles were almost exactly 90 degrees, while the radius in the corners was just 4 millimeters.
03:34When Dunn approached an American company and asked them to try making a similar box from a solid block of
03:43granite,
03:44they told him bluntly that even with an unlimited budget, it would still have to be constructed from six separate
03:52granite plates.
03:54Meanwhile, its ancient makers carved each container from a single massive block of solid granite brought all the way from
04:02Aswan, roughly 800 kilometers away from Saqqara.
04:06Most of the stones used for the boxes have a hardness of 6 on the Mohs scale, and some are
04:12even made of diorite, which is even harder.
04:15The tunnels are extremely narrow, barely wide enough for two people to pass each other.
04:21How stones weighing up to 100 tons were maneuvered through perfectly straight corridor sections and around the corners,
04:28and then lowered into niches with clearances of just 40 centimeters remains completely unexplained by science.
04:35There is almost no room to use levers or for a large group of workers to operate.
04:41And according to official history, the ancient Egyptians didn't have any hydraulic equipment either.
04:49There is an unfinished box that still stands in the middle of the tunnel, as if the worker suddenly abandoned
04:55it midway through the job.
04:59It was left there forever.
05:01The crude hieroglyphs carved onto the exterior of the boxes are noticeably different from the almost mirror-like smoothness of
05:09the interior.
05:10It is as if completely different people made them, and it is possible that thousands of years separated the creation
05:18of the containers from the inscriptions on their exterior.
05:22If you feel that everything is still normal right now, that might change with our next discovery.
05:29If you like these kinds of stories, subscribe to the channel.
05:34Here we dig into mysteries that begin where textbooks end.
05:39What do you think?
05:40Why would this kind of surgical precision be needed for a bull's coffin?
05:45Leave your thoughts in the comments.
05:48Now, from the underground galleries of Egypt, let's head beneath the Mediterranean Sea.
05:54In 1901, a group of Greek sponge divers was caught in a severe storm near the island of Antikythera.
06:02The captain sent a diver underwater to check the situation.
06:06But when he surfaced, he was terrified.
06:10He was screaming about dead bodies lying at a depth of 60 meters.
06:14The captain went down himself and saw the real reason.
06:19It wasn't a cemetery, but the remains of an ancient Roman ship that sank more than 2,000 years ago.
06:27What they called dead bodies were actually marble statues buried in the sand for 2,000 years.
06:34Among the statues and scattered coins was a small and seemingly ordinary object made of bronze.
06:41For two years, it just sat in a drawer at the National Museum in Athens.
06:47Until politician and archaeologist Spyridon Stice noticed a crack in that object.
06:53Inside was a small gear, gleaming.
06:57Its teeth were perfectly cut.
06:59For an object over 2,000 years old, this became huge news.
07:05Some said it was a massive archaeological discovery, while skeptics claimed it was merely a fake.
07:11But when modern x-ray and tomography technology were used in 2000, what was inside became clear.
07:19Hidden inside was a complex system of 37 bronze gears.
07:24The largest had a diameter of 13 seat emitters and featured 223 teeth.
07:30The device, which was about the size of a laptop, could calculate the positions of the sun, the moon, and
07:36five planets.
07:37It could also predict solar and lunar eclipses, track the Olympic game cycle, and display the moon phases.
07:45This level of calculation accuracy in a device was only achieved by European science centuries later.
07:54The mechanism also accounted for the moon's varying orbital speed as it moved through different parts of its elliptical orbit.
08:03To accomplish that, there were two internal gears mounted on different axes.
08:08It was a true differential mechanism.
08:12It's also the exact same principle that allows car wheels to rotate at different speeds when turning.
08:19The teeth of each gear were crafted with such precision that it's hard to imagine they were made using only
08:25a hand file.
08:27For the triangular teeth are so identical it's as if they were made from a mold.
08:32The inscriptions on the back of the device were only recently fully deciphered.
08:37Thanks to tomography, it was discovered that they contained detailed instructions on how to use the mechanism.
08:45As for the indicators on the front, they had colored balls representing different celestial objects, red for Mars and gold
08:53for the sun.
08:56Researchers from University College London called the original device a work of genius because
09:02it combined Babylonian astronomy and mathematics associated with the tradition of Plato's academy.
09:09Whoever made this device clearly possessed an extraordinarily advanced knowledge of space.
09:16A level of knowledge that the rest of humanity would not reach again for nearly 20 centuries.
09:22In the first century BC, the Roman orator Cicero also mentioned similar devices allegedly made by Archimedes in Syracuse.
09:32So, it turns out the Antikythera mechanism wasn't the only device of its kind.
09:38It was part of a broader tradition of ancient technology, of which only a single copy has survived to this
09:45day.
09:45The ancient Greeks seemingly managed to encapsulate their knowledge of the heavens inside a bronze box.
09:53And around the same time, another remarkable technology was developed in India.
09:59The production of rust-resistant iron.
10:02In the courtyard of the Kuwat-ul-Islam Mosque in Delhi,
10:07India stands an iron pillar 7.2 meters tall and weighing over 6 tons.
10:12It has a Sanskrit inscription that links the pillar to King Chandra Chandragupta II of the Gupta dynasty in the
10:194th century AD.
10:21The pillar has stood outdoors for centuries, exposed to monsoon rains and intense heat.
10:28Yet remarkably, it has almost no rust.
10:32Ordinary iron in Delhi's climate would rust within just a few years.
10:37Meanwhile, the Eiffel Tower needs to be repainted regularly to be protected against corrosion.
10:43In the 10th century, a cannonball struck the pillar.
10:48It hit the iron body, but the entire structure remained standing, leaving only a small dent at a height of
10:55about 4 meters.
10:57Researchers have been trying to uncover its secret for over a century.
11:03In 1912, British chemists first took samples to analyze what made this iron so extraordinary.
11:10The answer came 91 years later, when Professor Balakrishnaman from the Kanpur Institute of Technology published his study.
11:18His team utilized X-ray diffraction, electrochemical tests, and microscopy to finally understand what was happening on the metal's surface.
11:28They discovered that the iron pillar contained approximately 1% phosphorus.
11:34Along with this, it contains almost no sulfur and magnesium.
11:39This unique combination helps in forming a thin crystalline iron phosphate layer on the iron surface.
11:45The layer serves as an invisible shield.
11:49Even more impressively, it can gradually repair tiny cracks whenever the metal gets wet and dries again.
11:57In other words, ancient blacksmiths were able to create a natural equivalent of stainless steel.
12:03For more than 1,500 years before modern stainless steel was even invented, they used forge welding,
12:12repeatedly heating and hammering the iron to keep the phosphorus inside it.
12:17Without modern equipment and without any textbooks, even to this day,
12:22modern metallurgy still hasn't fully replicated the exact combination of composition and durability found in this pillar.
12:30Six tons of iron, without even a single drop of paint, standing outside for centuries, continuously resisting rust.
12:40Meanwhile, modern industry continues to develop various methods to protect iron against corrosion.
12:47The Indians unlocked the secret of iron.
12:50Meanwhile, during the Roman Empire, there was another remarkable technology that had to do with light.
12:58In the British Museum, a cup known as the Lycurgus cup can be seen.
13:04It is the only complete example of dichroic glass from ancient times.
13:09When light hits it from the front, the cup appears green like jade.
13:15But when light shines through from behind the glass, it suddenly turns.
13:20Ruby red.
13:22There is also an engraved scene from an ancient myth depicting King Lycurgus entangled in grape vines while Dionysus watches
13:31him.
13:31The decoration was crafted using an intricate and very difficult technique.
13:36First, the glass was formed into a thick block.
13:40Afterward, it was gradually carved until the design looked like an open work lattice.
13:45But the secret of the color change didn't lie in the engraving.
13:49It was in the very structure of the glass itself.
13:52The answer was uncovered in 1990, when pieces of similar Roman glass were examined under an electron microscope.
14:00Extremely tiny particles of gold and silver were discovered inside the glass.
14:06These particles were only about 50 nanometers wide.
14:10Thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair.
14:14When light hits these particles, the electrons of the metal start to move and change the wavelength of the light.
14:24Silver is responsible for the green color when seen in reflected light.
14:29Meanwhile, gold is what gives the red color when light passes through the glass.
14:35This phenomenon is called plasmonic resonance.
14:38And now, this principle is used in sensors and holographic technologies.
14:47Roman craftsmen ground gold and silver down to particles invisible to the naked eye.
14:53Afterward, they mixed them into the glass in minute quantities.
14:59It was only in 2014 that scientists from Cambridge managed to produce a similar effect by
15:05creating a massive array of nanoparticles.
15:09This reached millions of nanoparticles per minute illimiter.
15:13But Roman craftsmen had already accomplished this.
15:16Achieving a similar effect more than 1,600 years ago.
15:20They had no microscopes.
15:22They had no lasers.
15:24And they had no modern textbooks on optics.
15:28The secret to making it was lost with the fall of the Roman.
15:32Empire without the Lycurgus cup.
15:34It would have remained just one of the main pieces of evidence for that technology.
15:40Today, researchers are trying to use this ancient principle to create ultra-sensitive detectors for identifying water pollution.
15:48The technology.
15:52First used for a banquet table could help save millions of lives more than 1,700 years later.
16:02The Romans controlled light and their contemporaries in the east may have known about controlling electricity.
16:13In 1936, while a railway was being constructed, workers were excavating near Baghdad when they discovered an ancient burial site.
16:23It was located near the ruins of Siti Isifan.
16:27The former capital of the Parthian kingdom.
16:30Among the discoveries was a clay jug, measuring 14 cynicenters in height.
16:36Inside it was a copper cylinder.
16:39In the middle of the cylinder hung an iron rod that didn't touch the walls.
16:45The mouth of the container was sealed with a concrete plug.
16:49Wilhelm Koenig, the director of the National Museum of Iraq, immediately recognized the design as a type of galvanic cell.
16:58Two different metals with different electrochemical potentials separated with space for a liquid electrolyte.
17:05The traces of corrosion inside the container indicate that it held an acidic liquid, likely vinegar or grape juice.
17:14American scientist Willard Gray built a replica of it and filled it with grape juice, and the device actually worked.
17:22It produced about one volt of electric current.
17:25If you connect several of these containers together, they could generate enough electricity for electroplating, like applying a thin layer.
17:38Similar containers were also found in nearby areas, and near them were bronze and iron needles.
17:44In the first century,
17:48The Roman physician Scribonius Largus described the use of electric fish for a type of treatment where it was placed
17:55on the patient's foot.
17:58This shows that the ancient world might have already been familiar with the use of electricity in medicine, long before
18:05it was given a modern scientific explanation.
18:08The so-called Baghdad battery predated the official inventions of modern battery technology by many centuries.
18:16In 2003, the artifact was stolen from the museum following the invasion of Iraq, and until now its whereabouts remain
18:24unknown.
18:25We might have lost one of the oldest examples of electrical technology in history, and we can no longer analyze
18:32it using modern scientific equipment.
18:35Now, let's return to Egypt, but this time, we're going to look at an object that can fit on top
18:42of a dining table and looks like a part from a modern machine shop.
18:45Also in 1936, archaeologist Walter Emery discovered the tomb of an official named Sabu in the Saqqara necropolis.
18:55Beside his skeleton lay a strange stone disk with a diameter of 61 centimeters.
19:02It was carved from a fragile stone known as metasilt stone, which easily cracks with even the slightest wrong strike.
19:11Three curved blades converge at a central hub.
19:14When looked at, the shape of the disk is almost identical to an industrial impeller for a water pump.
19:20The tomb is estimated to be 5,000 years old.
19:24It is from the era of Egypt's first dynasty, when tools were typically made from stone and soft copper.
19:31But how could ancient people have made it?
19:34That from a stone so prone to breaking, they could craft such thin and perfectly shaped blades without a single
19:41major chip or crack.
19:42To this day, there is still no clear answer.
19:45An enthusiast made a replica of it using a 3D printer and mounted it inside a housing with a shaft.
19:52When the replica was rotated, it began pumping water forcefully, functioning just like a classic centrifugal impeller.
20:01Even without a housing, the rotating disk creates a stable water vortex strong enough to show that its resemblance to
20:09an impeller isn't just an accident.
20:12Some engineers from Airbus also made replicas and analyzed its aerodynamic properties, although the disk could not be used as
20:20a propeller.
20:22Egyptologist Cyril Aldred noted that the disk's shape might suggest it is a replica of a much older metal original.
20:30If the Sabu disk really is a model of a lost mechanism, it could be a trace of engineering knowledge
20:37that was lost even before recorded history began.
20:425,000 years ago, someone living in the Nile Valley may have already known how to harness centrifugal force to
20:49pump water.
20:51And then, that knowledge seemed to vanish into the sands along with the name of the person who first conceived
20:59it.
20:59The latest discovery, however, wasn't hidden underground.
21:03Instead, thousands of tourists see it every day near Xi'an, China.
21:08In 1974, some farmers were digging a well when they stumbled upon pieces.
21:16This marked the beginning of the discovery of the Terracotta Army, over 8,000 life-sized warriors made of baked
21:23clay.
21:23Each statue is roughly the size of a real person, and remarkably, almost no two faces are exactly alike, even
21:31though only eight primary facial molds were used as a base.
21:35The warriors were placed to guard the tomb of the first emperor who unified China, Qin Shi Huang.
21:42In building this massive complex, it's estimated that up to 700,000 workers were mobilized, and up to now, less
21:51than 1% of the entire complex has been excavated.
21:54But the statues were not the real surprise.
21:57It was their weapons.
22:00Over 40,000 bronze coins were recovered from the pits.
22:04There were arrowheads, swords measuring up to 95 centimeters in length, spears, and crossbow mechanisms.
22:12After remaining underground for 2,200 years, the blades still glistened as if made yesterday, and they remained sharp.
22:21For 40 years, scientists believed the secret lay in a protective coating, because they found traces.
22:30Chromium coating was only patented in Europe in the 20th century, so the results were quite extraordinary.
22:37But in 2019, joint research by University College London and the Terracotta Army Museum changed this theory.
22:45It turned out that the chromium found on the swords was not actually part of the bronze.
22:51It actually came from contamination from the varnish used on the wooden handles and bamboo shafts.
22:56It turned out it had no direct connection to the preservation of the bronze.
23:01The real secret lay in the composition of the bronze, which had a high tin content, as well as the
23:07conditions of the local soil.
23:09The alkaline soil with fine particles and low organic content created an almost ideal environment to protect the metal from
23:17corrosion.
23:18In one test, bronze replicas were buried in the local soil, and after four months of rigorous testing, they remained
23:26intact.
23:27Meanwhile, the same samples buried in soil in Britain were covered in thick corrosion within the same period.
23:34This means that 22 centuries ago, the craftsmen of the Qin Dynasty chose the right alloy and the right environment,
23:43which acted as a natural preservative for their weapons.
23:47They didn't know the words electrochemistry or alkaline corrosion.
23:52Yet the result of their work has outlasted every empire that came after.
23:58Over 40,000 blades lay in the dark, biding their time.
24:02They are like an order that was never rescinded.
24:07Of everything you heard today, which one surprised you the most?
24:11Let me know in the comments.
24:13Today we ventured through Egypt's underground labyrinths and dove deep into the Mediterranean Sea.
24:19We stood before India's iron pillar and gazed into a Roman cup where nanoparticles moved.
24:26We imagined holding a battery that's two millennia old and examined a 5,000-year-old stone turbine.
24:33Each of these discoveries is real, documented, and on display in museums we can actually visit.
24:41We don't just have to take someone's word for it.
24:44We just have to buy a plane ticket, go there, and see them with our own eyes.
24:51None of these require aliens to explain, but each of them forces us to accept one thing that might be
24:58uncomfortable for some.
25:01Our ancestors had knowledge that we are only now rediscovering thousands of years later.
25:07We call these breakthroughs.
25:11But to them, this might have just been ordinary knowledge in their time.
25:16Progress may not be a straight upward line.
25:21It could be a spiral where, with each turn, we face the same ignorance once again.
25:26The real mystery isn't how they did it.
25:30The bigger question is, why did we forget it?
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