Ancient Technology

A controversial story from Russia suggests that a prehistoric machine part is extraterrestrial in origin.The claim surrounds an aluminium object that was said to have been discovered in a piece of coal by a resident of Vladivostok when he was lighting his fire. The object was taken to be studied by scientists in the Primorye region who allegedly concluded that it was 300 million years old, meaning that it came in to being well before humans walked the planet. Described as an "aluminium gear", the artifact could have only been created through industrial manufacturing methodswhich has lead to the outlandish suggestion that it is in fact alien in origin.The authenticity of this story, unsurprisingly, remains sketchy at best.

No definitive evaluation of the object has been made available for general study and it is questionable that an object made of aluminium could have survived for 300 million years. While the claim is undoubtedly interesting, for the moment there are too many unknowns involved to conclude that the story represents a discovery of genuine significance. The Voice of Russia and other Russian sources are reporting that a 300 million year old piece of aluminum machinery hasbeen found in Vladivostok. Experts say a gear rail appears to be manufactured and not the result of natural forces.  

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Located roughly 20 miles south of Cairo, it is home to the world-famous step pyramid of King Djoser. Dating back more than 4,000 years, it is the oldest of Egypt’s 97 pyramids. Saqqara is also famous for being one of Egypt’s oldest burial grounds, earning it the nickname “City of the Dead.” It was here, in 1891, that French archeologists unearthed an ancient tomb containing the burial remains of Pa-di-Imen, an official from the third century BC. Among the various items discovered was a small wooden model of what appeared to be a bird, lying beside a papyrus bearing the inscription: “I want to fly.” The artifact was later sent to the Cairo Museum, where authorities placed it alongside several other bird figurines. The model sat largely unnoticed, until 1969, when Egyptologist Dr. Kahlil Messiha was examining the bird collection and noticed that there was something very different about the Saqqara bird.

It’s interesting because on one hand, clearly, it should look like a bird because it has eyes and has a typical nose of a bird. On the other hand, the wings are clearly not bird wings. To the middle of the rim, you see this wing a bit thicker. In this region, the lift-up is the highest. The whole thing becomes thinner to the, um, end of the wings. And those wings, uh, model down. And this is a very modern aerodynamic design. Then the other point is, birds have no rudders. Because a bird does not need a rudder because of its aerodynamic architecture. And so, there is the idea they are not representing birds, but flying machines, or aircraft. Could the ancient Egyptians have possessed the power of flight?

In 2006, aviation and aerodynamics expert Simon Sanderson built a scale model of the Saqqara bird five times larger than the original to test that possibility.We’re running at a constant speed, slowly increasing the angle of attack, and then measuring the forces which it’s producing. That way, we can learn about its flight characteristics. At ten degrees, we’re producing four times weight and lift. So, it actually would be flying now. Test shows the Saqqara bird is a highly developed glider...

Caravaggio used an early form of photography to create his masterpieces - 200 years before the invention of the camera, a researcher has claimed. Roberta Lapucci said the Italian artist - noted for his chiaroscuro (light and shadow) paintings - used "techniques that are the basis of photography". It was already known he worked in a "darkroom" and illuminated his models through a hole in the ceiling. But Ms Lapucci believes the image was also projected on a canvas and "fixed".Light-sensitivesubstances applied to the canvas would have "fixed" the image for around 30 minutes, allowing Caravaggio to paint the image with broad strokes using white lead mixed with chemicals and minerals that were visible in the dark.

Ms Lapucci, who is a teacher at the prestigious Studio Art Centers International in Florence, is the first researcher to suggest the 16th century painter treated the canvas with light-sensitive substances.She believes he could have used a photoluminescent powder from crushed fireflies, which was used at the time to create special effects in theatre productions. "There is lots of proof, notably the fact that Caravaggio never made preliminary sketches. So it is plausible that he used these 'projections' to paint," she said. Noting that "an abnormalnumber of his subjects were left-handed," Lapucci said: "That could be explained by the fact that the image projected on the canvas was backwards." She added: "This anomaly disappears in the artist's later works, a sign that the instruments he used were improving. Also thanks to technical progress, his paintings gain a lot in depth of field over the years." Ms Lapucci said the use of such techniques did not detract from the artist's work. "His mastery of certain techniques before his time in no way diminishes his genius. "To the contrary, clearly, you can't just project images on a canvas and copy them to become a Caravaggio."

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Has the grand Roman Pantheon been keeping a secret for nearly 2000 years? An expert in ancient timekeeping thinks so, arguing that it acts as a colossal sundial. The imposing temple in Rome, completed in AD 128, is one of the most impressive buildings that survives from antiquity. It consists of a cylindrical chamber topped by a domed roof with an oculus in the top which lets through a dramatic shaft of sunlight. It boasts a colonnaded courtyard at the front.When Robert Hannah of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, visited the Pantheon in 2005, researching for a book, he realised that the Pantheon may have been more than just atemple.During the six months of winter, the light of the noon sun traces a path across the inside of the domed roof.

During summer, with the sun higher in the sky, the shaft shines onto the lower walls and floor. At the two equinoxes, in March and September, the sunlight coming in through the hole strikes the junction between the roof and wall, above the Pantheon's grand northern doorway. A grille above the door allows a sliver of light through to the front courtyard - the only moment in the year that it sees sunlight if its main doors are closed. Hannah reckons this is no coincidence. A hollowed-out hemisphere with a hole in the top was a type of sundial used in Roman times, albeit on a much smaller scale, to show the time of year. While the Pantheon's dome is quite flat on the outside, it forms a perfect hemisphere inside. "This is quitea deliberate design feature," says Hannah. Pantheon means "all of the gods" and the building's roof represented the dome of the sky, where Romans believed the gods resided. At equinox, the sun is on the celestial equator - where Earth's equator would lie if projected into space - which was seen as the most stable part of the sky, a perfect eternal home for the gods. Hannah thinks that by marking the equinoxes, the Pantheon was intended to elevate emperors who worshipped there into the realm of the gods. James Evans, a historian of astronomy at the University of Puget Sound in Washington state, is intrigued: "The architect of the Pantheon would certainly have been aware of the symbolic connections between the cosmos and the empire, and between the sun and the emperor." He doesn't believe the case is proven, however, as no markingssurvive in......