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Ancient Technology

Dating back thousands of years are numerous examples of ancient technology that leave us awe-struck at the knowledge and wisdom held by people of our past. They were the result of incredible advances in engineering and innovation as new, powerful civilizations emerged and came to dominate the ancient world. These advances stimulated societies to adopt new ways of living and governance, as well as new ways of understanding their world. However, many ancient technology mysteries were forgotten, lost to the pages of history, only to be re-invented millennia later. Here we feature ancient technology history and dozens of amazing artifacts that reflect the brilliance of ancient minds.

The 1,800-Year-Old marble bathtub from Aphrodisias. Source: Hurriyet Daily News
25 April, 2022 - 22:50 Nathan Falde

Rare 1,800-Year-Old Marble Bathtub from Aphrodisias Rescued from Thieves

A raid by Turkish police on March 31, 2022 led to the recovery of a rare and valuable ancient artifact that was about to be sold by smugglers. In Turkey’s western or Aegean province of Aydin , law...
Left: An unknown Egyptian mummy. Right: Modern equivalent of Mummy Brown pigment. Source: michal812 / Adobe Stock
19 April, 2022 - 01:55 dhwty

Mummy Brown – 16th Century Paint Made from Ground Up Mummies

Most people today would probably associate Egyptian mummies with museums. This is unsurprising, as this is probably where most of us have seen them, especially in Europe. Yet, if I were to say that...
Archaeoacoustics and Ancient Architecture: Megaliths, Music and the Mind
15 April, 2022 - 23:00 Linda C. Eneix

Archaeoacoustics and Ancient Architecture: Megaliths, Music and the Mind

Before introducing the Big Question, let’s ponder a minute. Isn’t it amazing that for hundreds of thousands of years, all of humankind lived the same way everywhere on Earth. We were all indigenous...
The lost city of Amarna found in the 19th century was built by the almost alien-like heretic pharaoh Akhenaten, who introduced the smaller, more efficient talatat blocks for building construction and changed Egyptian religion for a while. Source: Brown University
14 April, 2022 - 23:01 Khadija Tauseef

Talatat Blocks and Akhenaten’s Failed Architectural Revolution

Egypt has a rich history of architectural monuments that dot its landscape. Each monument is a testament to the pharaoh who created it. These buildings have forever cemented the names of the pharaohs...
Composite image combining illustration of Acharya Kanad and an image of an atom. Source: astroved / CC BY-SA 4.0 & Siarhei / Adobe Stock
14 April, 2022 - 01:59 Joanna Gillan

Acharya Kanad: An Indian Sage Who Developed Atomic Theory 2,600 Years Ago

While John Dalton, an English chemist and physicist, is the man credited today with the development of atomic theory at the turn of the 19th century, a theory of atoms was actually formulated 2,500...
Representational image of an Aztec warrior holding a double-ended spear. Source: Warpedgalerie / Adobe Stock
3 April, 2022 - 22:59 Jake Leigh-Howarth

Aztec Weapons: The Horrifying Aztec Armory

The Aztecs were a native Mesoamerican culture that thrived in the forests, jungles, and plains of Central Mexico from 1300 until 1521, when their capital Tenochtitlan was seized by Hernán Cortés and...
Oklo, Gabon has the world's first and only natural nuclear reactor. Source: WORLDKINGS
3 April, 2022 - 14:59 Lex Leigh

Gabon: The Home of Ancient Nuclear Reactors

Nuclear reactors, manmade machines designed to generate energy from nuclear fission, have been around since 1942. Some may be surprised to find out, however, that though manmade nuclear reactors were...
A researcher holding the bollock dagger that was found at Ypres, Belgium. Source: VRT
31 March, 2022 - 14:33 ashley cowie

Dropped Your Bastard Sword? Then Whip Out Your Bollock Dagger

If you find the term ‘bollock dagger’ too crude, you could rightfully call this weapon a ‘kidney dagger.’ But that’s how the Victorians attempted to mask the true nature of this horrendous invention...
A new study posits that tools with handles, which came after countless generation of archaic humans used handheld rocks to cut, chop, and kill, are the oldest and most important technological invention of hominins. Source: ExQuisine / Adobe Stock
17 March, 2022 - 18:02 Sahir

The Handle NOT the Wheel Was Our Most Revolutionary Invention, Study

A new study published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface has claimed that early man’s greatest invention was actually not the wheel but the tool handle! With an impact on transport,...
Reproduction horse armor and linen pierced by an arrow point. Source: Jones et. al. / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
9 March, 2022 - 13:58 Sahir

Knights and Armored Steeds: Was Horse Armor Effective in Battle?

Nothing recalls the medieval era in Europe better than the image of a gallant knight in shining armor mounted on a fully barded—or armored—steed. But how effective was such mail horse armor in...
The evidence found in north China from roughly 40,000 years ago, including advanced stone tools and ochre processing knowledge, was created by ancient humans. However, archaeologists are still trying to figure out who these ancient hominins were, and the choices are Neanderthals, Denisovans or Homo sapiens. Source: Gorodenkoff / Adobe Stock
8 March, 2022 - 13:59 ashley cowie

40,000-year-old Tools Used by Ancient Humans Unearthed In North China

Archaeologists in China have unearthed a hoard of intricately crafted stone blades and ochre processing activities attributed to ancient humans living less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of...
Archaeologists have discovered the oldest ochre workshop in East Asia in north China and a recent study in the Nature journal shows how the lithic tools found at the site link to Africa. Source: Griffin University
3 March, 2022 - 21:55 Sahir

Advanced Human Culture Dating Back 40,000 Years Found in China

A new study published in the journal Nature by an international team of archaeologists has provided fascinating new insights into hunter-gatherer lifestyles 40,000 years ago in north China, and Homo...
Collage of various measures of unit of length. Source: Andrey Armyagov / Adobe Stock
27 February, 2022 - 14:00 ancient-origins

A Rediscovered Unit of Length and Implications for the Neolithic

Following work which began in the 1970s and spanned nearly 40 years, Peter Harris and Norman Stockdale identified a “new” unit of length in 2015. They called it the Harris and Stockdale Megalithic...
These two daggers were found in King Tutankhamun's burial wrappings: the lower one is King Tut’s dagger made from iron from a meteorite, and likely foreign made according to the latest research study. Source: Ancient Egypt
22 February, 2022 - 20:48 Sahir

King Tut’s Dagger Twist: It Was Not Made In Egypt

Subject of many studies and investigations, Egyptian King Tut’s dagger has already been proven to have been made from meteorite iron. A recent study has now added a new dimension to exactly where...
A rare iron arrowhead dating to AD 300-600 was found at Sandgrovskaret in 2018. Source: Espen Finstad/Secrets of the Ice
19 February, 2022 - 14:00 Nathan Falde

Reindeer Hunting Relics Found On Ancient Mountain Trail in Norway

Fittingly, archaeologists who explore landscapes exposed by glacial melt are known as glacial archaeologists. In 2018, a team of these specialized experts were dispatched to the ice-covered mountains...
Helmet still in the ground at the Velia temple site. Source: Parco Archeologico Paestum
3 February, 2022 - 22:00 ashley cowie

Two Warrior Helmets Unearthed At Greek Temple In Velia, Italy

A pair of sixth-century BC warrior’s helmets have been discovered along with a ruined temple at Velia in southern Italy. It is believed that these rare artifacts are relics from the legendary Battle...
In this 17th-century depiction of Stonehenge from the Atlas van Loon one wonders where the Scotsman Stonehenge architect of Dr John Hill’s convincing theory is working and on what. Source: Blaeu, J / Public domain
29 January, 2022 - 14:00 Dr. John Hill

The Scottish Stonehenge Architect and His Aberdeenshire Stone Circles

Sooner rather than later I hope that my fellow archaeologists will accept the fact that Stonehenge was designed by a very small number of exceptional Neolithic architects and one of those Stonehenge...
Was the ever-evolving technological revolution dependent on single-minded genius? Source: Kovalenko I / Adobe Stock
7 January, 2022 - 18:00 ashley cowie

Charting the Role of Prehistoric Genius in Technological Revolution

An English scientist has charted the spread of ancient survival technologies. His awe-inspiring maps reveal how individual ancient geniuses innovated in one place, and how these new ideas spread...
Representation of the Hydraulic Telegraph of Aeneas. Source: Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology
4 January, 2022 - 01:00 mrreese

The Hydraulic Telegraph of Aeneas – Long-Distance Communication of Antiquity

Advances in technology have drastically changed the way we live today compared to those of our ancient past. One type of technology that many of us may take for granted is the ability to communicate...
Understanding the Stonehenge calendar is easy if you follow Stephen Childs’ thinking in this article and in his book “Stone Circles Explained.” This image shows sunrise at this ancient site. Source: Gail Johnson / Adobe Stock
28 December, 2021 - 01:00 Stephen Childs

The Stonehenge Calendar: A Prehistoric Approach to Time’s Passing

Readers will probably know that Stonehenge’s design highlights the longest and shortest days of the year, but it is not always understood that its strange configuration was designed to enable every...
The steam-powered flying pigeon of Archytas. Source: YourForum
19 December, 2021 - 13:59 mrreese

The Steam-Powered Pigeon of Archytas – The Flying Machine of Antiquity

Archytas was an ancient Greek philosopher, who was born in 428 BC in Tarentum, Magna Graecia, now southern Italy. In addition to being a philosopher, Archytas was also a mathematician, astronomer,...
Left to right; Germanic lyre - the best-preserved lyre from Dzhetyasar - A replica of the Sutton Hoo lyre. Source: Left to right: CC BY-SA 4.0 / G. Kolltveit / A Praefcke / Antiquities Publications Ltd
15 December, 2021 - 00:00 Sahir

Experts Surprised By Similarities Of Sutton Hoo Lyre and Eastern Specimen

A recent re-examination of artifacts from Soviet era digs in the Dzhetyasar territory in southwest Kazakhstan has identified a fourth-century AD lyre that shows remarkable similarity with the one...
Ireland’s oldest known ink pen made from bone and copper alloy. This writing instrument is unique because of its construction and because it was used for secular writing not for religious manuscripts. Source: Dr Michelle Comber / Clare Herald
12 December, 2021 - 17:57 ashley cowie

1,000-Year-Old Ink Pen Found in Ringfort is Ireland’s Oldest

An archaeologist excavating at an 11th century ringfort in Ireland has unearthed the oldest ink pen ever discovered in Ireland. What’s unusual, is that this artifact was a secular work tool used for...
The complete large straw-tempered Egyptian beer jars from Hierakonpolis in the background. The recent research study suggests the contents of these big jars would have been decanted into smaller, finer beakers, like the three shown in this image. Source: Journal of Anthropological Archaeology
8 December, 2021 - 00:57 Sahir

Porridge-like Egyptian Beer Was Used 5,800 Years Ago in Rituals

New research published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology has revealed that Egyptian beer was produced and consumed as a staple as well as for ritual purposes as far back as 5,800 years...

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