The 10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts

[thereds]

http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa011402a.htm?1

Very interesting.

One of the top ten...

The Ica Stones
Beginning in the 1930s, the father of Dr. Javier Cabrera, Cultural Anthropologist for Ica, Peru, discovered many hundreds of ceremonial burial stones in the tombs of the ancient Incas. Dr. Cabrera, carrying on his father's work, has collected more than 1,100 of these andesite stones, which are estimated to be between 500 and 1,500 years old and have become known collectively as the Ica Stones. The stones bear etchings, many of which are sexually graphic (which was common to the culture), some picture idols and others depict such practices as open-heart surgery and brain transplants. The most astonishing etchings, however, clearly represent dinosaurs - brontosaurs, triceratops (see photo), stegosaurus and pterosaurs. While skeptics consider the Ica Stones a hoax, their authenticity has neither been proved or disproved.

 

[TSS]

why couldnt those people who made the stuff leave a simple post-it note with the reason of their creation with name?

it does carry some interesting stuff, like those metal things that have been made way before humans existed.

 

[fire400]

The Baghdad Battery
Today batteries can be found in any grocery, drug, convenience and department store you come across. Well, here's a battery that's 2,000 years old! Known as the Baghdad Battery, this curiosity was found in the ruins of a Parthian village believed to date back to between 248 B.C. and 226 A.D. The device consists of a 5-1/2-inch high clay vessel inside of which was a copper cylinder held in place by asphalt, and inside of that was an oxidized iron rod. Experts who examined it concluded that the device needed only to be filled with an acid or alkaline liquid to produce an electric charge. It is believed that this ancient battery might have been used for electroplating objects with gold. If so, how was this technology lost... and the battery not rediscovered for another 1,800 years?

Okay, let me get this straight. If a nation was utilizing this, they'd become aliens and be invading other planets as of today, otherwise it must have fallen from a space shuttle?

 

[PurdueRy]

"Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica"

They talked about that one on Discovery HD awhile back and they told how they made them and why...not sure why about.com didn't get the message

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
"Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica"

They talked about that one on Discovery HD awhile back and they told how they made them and why...not sure why about.com didn't get the message

care to explain how and why they were made or do you have a link?

i love reading about stuff like this. i guess maybe it because i want to believe in other intelligent life in the universe or that there was some kind of magical forces ages ago or soemthing.

 

[FoBoT]

those Inca dudes were pretty amazing, it sucks the spanish wiped them out so early in the exploration of the americas

 

[Kenazo]

Someone's been visiting fark...

 

[mercanucaribe]

The triceratops thing can't be real.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
"Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica"

They talked about that one on Discovery HD awhile back and they told how they made them and why...not sure why about.com didn't get the message

care to explain how and why they were made or do you have a link?

i love reading about stuff like this. i guess maybe it because i want to believe in other intelligent life in the universe or that there was some kind of magical forces ages ago or soemthing.

Well the show was quite long but basically they still make them in one village. They use a very precisely made octagon shaped structure made of bamboo sticks. They put this over the ball they are making and it should touch the ball in the middle of each flat edge. If it doesn't they hit the ball with a stone, grinding away the rock in small bits at a time, until it does touch.

 

[alien42]

i have always been fascinated by the dropa stones and the stories that go with them.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
"Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica"

They talked about that one on Discovery HD awhile back and they told how they made them and why...not sure why about.com didn't get the message

care to explain how and why they were made or do you have a link?

i love reading about stuff like this. i guess maybe it because i want to believe in other intelligent life in the universe or that there was some kind of magical forces ages ago or soemthing.

Well the show was quite long but basically they still make them in one village. They use a very precisely made octagon shaped structure made of bamboo sticks. They put this over the ball they are making and it should touch the ball in the middle of each flat edge. If it doesn't they hit the ball with a stone, grinding away the rock in small bits at a time, until it does touch.

But why?

 

[badmouse]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
"Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica"

They talked about that one on Discovery HD awhile back and they told how they made them and why...not sure why about.com didn't get the message

care to explain how and why they were made or do you have a link?

i love reading about stuff like this. i guess maybe it because i want to believe in other intelligent life in the universe or that there was some kind of magical forces ages ago or soemthing.

Well the show was quite long but basically they still make them in one village. They use a very precisely made octagon shaped structure made of bamboo sticks. They put this over the ball they are making and it should touch the ball in the middle of each flat edge. If it doesn't they hit the ball with a stone, grinding away the rock in small bits at a time, until it does touch.

Cool.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
"Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica"

They talked about that one on Discovery HD awhile back and they told how they made them and why...not sure why about.com didn't get the message

care to explain how and why they were made or do you have a link?

i love reading about stuff like this. i guess maybe it because i want to believe in other intelligent life in the universe or that there was some kind of magical forces ages ago or soemthing.

Well the show was quite long but basically they still make them in one village. They use a very precisely made octagon shaped structure made of bamboo sticks. They put this over the ball they are making and it should touch the ball in the middle of each flat edge. If it doesn't they hit the ball with a stone, grinding away the rock in small bits at a time, until it does touch.

But why?

You expect me to remember everything from a 5 month old show? I believe it was the appease the gods as most things like this are done for.

 

[DAGTA]

Originally posted by: fire400
The Baghdad Battery
Today batteries can be found in any grocery, drug, convenience and department store you come across. Well, here's a battery that's 2,000 years old! Known as the Baghdad Battery, this curiosity was found in the ruins of a Parthian village believed to date back to between 248 B.C. and 226 A.D. The device consists of a 5-1/2-inch high clay vessel inside of which was a copper cylinder held in place by asphalt, and inside of that was an oxidized iron rod. Experts who examined it concluded that the device needed only to be filled with an acid or alkaline liquid to produce an electric charge. It is believed that this ancient battery might have been used for electroplating objects with gold. If so, how was this technology lost... and the battery not rediscovered for another 1,800 years?

Okay, let me get this straight. If a nation was utilizing this, they'd become aliens and be invading other planets as of today, otherwise it must have fallen from a space shuttle?

MythBusters tested this one and it does work. Lemon juice can be used for the acid. It's strong enough to do electroplating and shock people but it's not dependable enough to be used like the batteries of today. Very interesting, though.

 

[SWScorch]

good read. Very interesting. Of course the skeptic in me immediately dismisses most of these as hoaxes, but it's still so cool. The Nazca aerial glyphs, for example, are amazing and so damn intriguing.

 

[Mucho]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
those Inca dudes were pretty amazing, it sucks the spanish wiped them out so early in the exploration of the americas

If they were so amazing how come such a small number of Spaniards wipe them out?

 

[OutHouse]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
"Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica"

They talked about that one on Discovery HD awhile back and they told how they made them and why...not sure why about.com didn't get the message

care to explain how and why they were made or do you have a link?

i love reading about stuff like this. i guess maybe it because i want to believe in other intelligent life in the universe or that there was some kind of magical forces ages ago or soemthing.

Well the show was quite long but basically they still make them in one village. They use a very precisely made octagon shaped structure made of bamboo sticks. They put this over the ball they are making and it should touch the ball in the middle of each flat edge. If it doesn't they hit the ball with a stone, grinding away the rock in small bits at a time, until it does touch.

I saw that same show and it was demostrated that makeing a stone ball is really quite easy. as to why? well the scientest think they were made just for fun, sorta a hobby. "look my rock is bigger and more perfect round than your rock"

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Citrix

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
"Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica"

They talked about that one on Discovery HD awhile back and they told how they made them and why...not sure why about.com didn't get the message

care to explain how and why they were made or do you have a link?

i love reading about stuff like this. i guess maybe it because i want to believe in other intelligent life in the universe or that there was some kind of magical forces ages ago or soemthing.

Well the show was quite long but basically they still make them in one village. They use a very precisely made octagon shaped structure made of bamboo sticks. They put this over the ball they are making and it should touch the ball in the middle of each flat edge. If it doesn't they hit the ball with a stone, grinding away the rock in small bits at a time, until it does touch.

I saw that same show and it was demostrated that makeing a stone ball is really quite easy. as to why? well the scientest think they were made just for fun, sorta a hobby. "look my rock is bigger and more perfect round than your rock"

Ya that sounds right. Thanks for reminding me, its been a while since I saw it.

 

[Howard]

By "open-heart surgery" don't they mean human sacrifice?

 

[Al Neri]

Over the last few decades, miners in South Africa have been digging up mysterious metal spheres. Origin unknown, these spheres measure approximately an inch or so in diameter, and some are etched with three parallel grooves running around the equator. Two types of spheres have been found: one is composed of a solid bluish metal with flecks of white; the other is hollowed out and filled with a spongy white substance. The kicker is that the rock in which they where found is Precambrian - and dated to 2.8 billion years old! Who made them and for what purpose is unknown.

sounds VERY scientific

 

[CaptnKirk]

Nazca lines

Not to be confused with Peruvian Marching Powder.

 

[AMDZen]

At the end they say "


What are we to make of these finds? There are several possibilities:

Intelligent humans date back much, much further than we realize.
Other intelligent beings and civilizations existed on earth far beyond our recorded history.
Our dating methods are completely inaccurate, and that stone, coal and fossils form much more rapidly than we now estimate.

In any case, these examples - and there are many more - should prompt any curious and open-minded scientist to reexamine and rethink the true history of life on earth.
"

They leave out another possibility - time travel

 

[OrganizedChaos]

Originally posted by: Mucho

Originally posted by: FoBoT
those Inca dudes were pretty amazing, it sucks the spanish wiped them out so early in the exploration of the americas

If they were so amazing how come such a small number of Spaniards wipe them out?

Its like the end of Hamlet when young Fortinbras shows up and everyone is already dead so hes like "cool beans" and assumes power. 60 to 90 percent of the inca population got wiped out by smallpox right before Pizzaro showed up.

 

[Al Neri]

Originally posted by: thereds
http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa011402a.htm?1

Very interesting.

One of the top ten...

The Ica Stones
Beginning in the 1930s, the father of Dr. Javier Cabrera, Cultural Anthropologist for Ica, Peru, discovered many hundreds of ceremonial burial stones in the tombs of the ancient Incas. Dr. Cabrera, carrying on his father's work, has collected more than 1,100 of these andesite stones, which are estimated to be between 500 and 1,500 years old and have become known collectively as the Ica Stones. The stones bear etchings, many of which are sexually graphic (which was common to the culture), some picture idols and others depict such practices as open-heart surgery and brain transplants. The most astonishing etchings, however, clearly represent dinosaurs - brontosaurs, triceratops (see photo), stegosaurus and pterosaurs. While skeptics consider the Ica Stones a hoax, their authenticity has neither been proved or disproved.

and we derived from the pilt down man!

bah! hogwash.

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

This kind of thing is sooo cool. thanks for the info!