The Archaeology Thread

[Anomalocaris]

I am on a 2 year project to scratch building a working model of the antikythera device out of brass and styrene plastic.   The bearings are sliding brass tubes, most, hopefully all, gears will be cut from sheet styrene.  

For those who don’t want to take the trouble to research and make a working model of antikythera model from scratch, but like to hold one anyway, kotsanas museum sells a Working replica made from wood and brass, just like the original.  At 220 Euros it is a bargain.    When I started it was 600 euros.

I find really ancient technology fascinating. Things like the Mungo people of Australia. They turned up in Australia 40,000+ years ago, perhaps more. The only way they got there is by sea. How did they achieve that? Well, as far as anyone can tell, they island hopped. None of this wimpy migrating along the coast, they appear to have simply struck out across the ocean. No way of knowing if there was anything at the end of the line. The must have had vessels of some sort and some means of navigation. Nobody knows how they did it, or why. Oddly, having made landfall at the Australian coast, they migrated inland 800 km to settle at the eponymous Lake Mungo. How did they know it was there? If they didn't know, why set out in the first place? Since they were sailing the Pacific with aplomb, they were clearly an accomplished maritime group, why abandon the coast for the interior?

Alas, we are unlikely to get answers to such questions. Further research is not possible at this time. The human remains have been re-interred, and the sites declared to be sacred to indigenous peoples and no longer available for much in the way of serious research.

There is Petra and it's hydraulic engineering, Catalhoyuk and it's attempt to build a town/city with no streets whatsoever, Skara Brae, the many astronomically aligned celtic monuments across a swathe of western Europe...the list is endless.

People sometimes assume that our ancient ancestors were stupid. Far from it. Take a look at Otzi the Iceman. He was surprisingly well equipped for Alpine travel some 5,000+ years ago.

They were not stupid, and they were likely much more practiced then we are now at solving practical problems through ingenious application of techniques and material at hand.   The only thing is they didn’t have nearly as many techniques and materials as we do.

We have a small percentage of Einsteins, Von Brauns, and Edisons, and large percentage complacent morons.  They were probably MacGyvers down to the last man and woman.

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Reported on just earlier this month. They're calling it 'the Lamborghini of Chariots':





Boru

Holy shit.

I've seen plenty of two-wheeled chariots being found, but this is the first four-wheeled chariot I know about.

Thanks for this.

I thought a 4 wheeled chariot is called a wagon.