5 Advanced Ancient Inventions We Still Can't Figure Out

When we think of our ancestors most of us probably picture them living in societies where technological advancements were limited and people lived fairly simple life. Well, some people consider a life without Wi-Fi and smartphones simple so they lived really simple lives and a lot of people would probably think that anything they invented back then we can not only easily replicate but we can improve upon it. Here are some ancient inventions that we are still struggling to understand today.

Greek fire: The Byzantines of the 7th to 12th centuries hurled a mysterious substance at their enemies in naval battle. This liquid typically shot through tubes burned in water and could only be extinguished with a vinegar sand and urine. We still don't know what this chemical weapon known as Greek fire was made of. The Byzantine closely-guarded this secret ensuring that only a few knew how this was created and the knowledge eventually was lost altogether. All poisons was said to have been developed by King Mithridates - 6th of Pontus and perfected by Emperor Nero's personal physician. According to historians the original formula was lost but some say that among its ingredients were opium chopped of vipers and a combination of small doses of poison and their internals.

Archimedes of Syracuse was an ancient Greek mathematician physicist engineer inventor and astronomer, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity the 2nd century author Ellucian wrote that during the siege of Syracuse Archimedes destroyed enemy ships with fire. Centuries later Anthemius mentions burning-glasses as Archimedes weapon. The device sometimes called the Archimedes heat ray was used to focus sunlight onto approaching ships causing them to catch fire. Ever since the Renaissance a test of the Archimedes heat-ray was carried out in 1973 by Greek scientists. The experiment took place at a naval base outside Athens. On this occasion 70 mirrors were used each with a copper coating and a size of around 5 by 3 feet. The mirrors were pointed at a plywood mock-up of a Roman warship at a distance of around a hundred and 60 feet. When mirrors were focused accurately the ship burst into flames within a few seconds . Mythbusters broadcasted the result of the San Francisco experiments in 2006. The claim was placed in the category of busted or failed because of the length of time in the ideal weather conditions required for combustion to occur. Mythbusters tried again in 2010 and again failed to reproduce this ancient weapon and so declared it a myth.

Roman structures that have lasted thousands of years are Testaments to the advantages Roman concrete has over the concrete used today which shows signs of erosion after only about 50 years. Some Roman buildings are so spectacular in their construction and beauty that modern builders would never attempt something similar even with today's technology. It's been known for a while that the volcanic sand used in Roman concrete and mortar made their buildings last for so long. A new study by a group of engineers and engineering researchers has discovered the precise recipe that made the Roman concrete endure much longer than concrete used today and we literally just found this recipe. We didn't like come up with it we didn't create it we literally just found the ancient recipe written down by Roman architect Vitruvius.

In medieval times swords made of a substance called Damascus steel were being produced in the Middle East out of a raw material known as Walt steel from Asia. This thing was crazy strong and the original method of producing Damascus steel is not known because of differences in raw materials and manufacturing techniques. Modern attempts to duplicate the metal have not been entirely successful. The reputation and history of Damascus steel has given rise to many legends such as the ability of the steel to cut through a rifle barrel or to cut a hair falling across the blade. The secret of making Damascus steel has only reimbursed under the inspection of scanning electron microscopes in modern laboratories. It was first used around 300 BC and the knowledge seems to have been lost around the mid 18th century. Archeology expert K Chris Hurst explained that nanotechnology was involved in the production of Damascus steel in the sense that materials were added during the Steel's production to create chemical reactions at the quantum level.

So here's what I've been thinking. Although we live in a world where there seem to be a brand new phone every single month and new inventions every single week, is life really that much better off than people who lived on this earth thousands of years ago I mean I remember being happy living in an era of no cellphones. I actually liked the fact that people could not get a hold of me anytime they wanted to. I feel that although we are excelling technologically people from those days connected and understood much more about nature or the basic elements and had a far better understanding of how to utilize and implement them into their daily lives. For example there's a lot about alchemy that we just don't understand today, not only do we not understand we choose to dismiss most of it.

Ancient Chinese medicine are said to have miraculous properties that we cannot even replicate today, for example I remember reading a lot of Chinese publications, that there was a person selling a tooth medicine around China. The person selling said it was an ancient recipe passed down through his family. What this medicine does is that if you had a rotten tooth that needed to be pulled or wisdom teeth that needed to be pulled all you would do is applied the vapors of this medicine on that particular tooth and it would just like come right out no blood no fuss it would just come out. I don't have the medicine I never seen this done I just remember reading this in Chinese newspapers. I would much rather do that than say go to a dentist and first of all get the sensation of wanting to wet myself as a walk in and there having to go through that physical and psychological trauma of maybe getting my tooth pulled. I'm just saying technology back in the day may be more advanced than we think.