20 Ancient Inventions That Were Way Ahead Of Their Time

Did you know that around 1800 BC, there was a sort of flush toilet in Minoan civilization?! I’m in there on the porcelain throne thinking, “Indoor plumbing! One of modern man’s great victories!”, unaware of people four thousand years ago figuring shit out.

Neat little fact: Greek engineers reportedly made pretty accurate clocks using nothing but dripping water; they timed the hours using the consistent motion of water. I always underestimate my predecessors. I assumed precision and intricate engineering were reserved for just the last few generations of our lives.

In 1850, someone digging in the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud found a little oval piece of crystal. Some historians think it’s a magnifying lens, because things look bigger through the crystal. Other historians think it was a fire starter, a piece of jewelry, or decoration with no optical purpose at all. There’s nothing to say for sure. It dates from the 8th century BC, and could be a magnifying lens, meaning that Assyrians got there before Sherlock Holmes.

But did you know that the drone was first created by Greek thinker Archytas? His original drone consisted of a hollowed out wooden bird with wings, which some ancient sources say was propelled by air trapped inside it. Some modern re-creations suggest it was steam powered. Ancient accounts say the wooden pigeon actually flew, though no one recorded how far. Think Amazon invented drone delivery? Archytas beat them by 2,400 years.

During the 4th century BC or so, Persians built domes out of clay, some 15m high, made with a special heat-resistant mortar called sarooj. These structures are known as yakhchals. The temperature inside is reported to drop even below freezing, effectively turning them into freezers in the desert, where they stored the ice and kept food fresh all year round, without electricity!

The man who calculated an early approximation of π also almost created an ancient death ray. In order to defend his city from Rome, Archimedes created war machines, one of which was supposedly a heat ray in the form of polished bronze mirrors reflecting sunbeams onto enemy ships. Although historians claim there is little evidence to suggest it was ever created, tests have shown the trick could work today.

Around 1900, sponge divers hauled from a shipwreck an astonishing object known as the Antikythera Mechanism. From the second century BC, this device about the size of a thick book has at least 30 bronze gears and is inscribed with tiny instructions. It could predict celestial events and track planets!

King Mithridates VI was so afraid he’d be poisoned that he began taking micro-doses of poison daily to build up his immunity. He created a “cure-all” potion that combined over 60 different ground-down ingredients rolled into honey balls (sorry, Gwyneth), which people continued to take until the 1800s. It probably didn’t do anything, but you know what, at least it’s an early Goop!

Around 80 BC, the Romans invented the hypocaust, the first underfloor heating system. Furnaces were used to force hot air into open spaces under the floors to warm the rooms above. The more wood added to the fire, the hotter the system got. Hypocausts were used in upscale residences as well as in Roman baths. Of course, hypocausts were very expensive to run, and could only be enjoyed by rich people. Well, some things never change.

Diggers have unearthed a 2,000-year-old clay pot near Baghdad that has a rolled copper tube and an iron rod inside. Tests have shown that the item works as a battery when acid is added.

A couple of facts on the holy water machine. Heron of Alexandria built one of them in the first century AD. Customers would drop coins into a slot, which would fall onto a tray inside the machine. The weight of the coin would tip the tray, allowing some water to escape, after which the coin would drop off the tray, resetting the machine. Holy water vending machines have been in existence for roughly 2,000 years now. Today’s models, unfortunately, keep stealing my dollar and a bag of chips.

This is the best of the bunch, in my opinion. Heron built automatic doors for a temple. A priest would light a fire and the heat would expand the air inside a sealed container, which forced water into a bucket. The bucket then would lower, pulling on a rope that was attached to a spindle on the door, swinging them open. The whole process was slow and quiet enough that the people inside simply believed the gods had opened the doors themselves.

The story goes that during the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius, a glassmaker supposedly created a cup of unbreakable glass and brought it to show to the emperor. The glassmaker threw the cup on the ground, denting but not breaking it, then hammered the dent back out. Tiberius, fearing that glass would make gold devalue, supposedly had him killed for his troubles.

Random trivia fact: The secret to the Romans’ concrete is its chemical reaction with seawater. The particular mix of lime and volcanic rock, once exposed to the sea, would actually get stronger with time. Whereas modern concrete tends to crumble within a few generations, many Roman structures still stand after two millennia.

First earthquake detector: Invented in AD 132 by Zhang Heng, a Chinese court astronomer. It consists of a bronze vessel surrounded by eight dragons, each holding a ball in its mouth, with toads positioned beneath the dragons. A seismic event would cause a ball to fall into a toad’s mouth, producing a clanging sound, and the direction of the earthquake’s shaking could be determined from which ball dropped. I totally want this for my home, lol!

Trivia: About 1,800 years ago, a man named Ma Jun built a chariot with an arrow on the top. No matter how much the chariot turned, the arrow consistently pointed in the same direction. It wasn’t magic, and it wasn’t a magnet. It was gears. Complicated gears.

The Byzantines had a weapon, dubbed Greek fire, which we luckily do not have access to today. It devastated enemy fleets so effectively that it would wreak havoc even today. It was an incendiary that upon hitting things would stick and continue burning, even in water. It also apparently expanded really quickly. Thank goodness no one figured out how to make this stuff again today!

Another example is Damascus steel. It had such a huge reputation that it was said a Damascus-made sword would cut a silk scarf dropped onto the blade. However, over the years, they lost the technique to make it. Rather than forging different metals together, smiths melted carbon and iron together in a sealed crucible. Consider it basically the real-world version of the Valyrian steel swords featured in Game of Thrones.

Silphium was a fennel-like plant that grew only in a small coastal area in what is now Libya. The Romans consumed it recklessly, as it was used as birth control and a cure for pretty much any ailment, and was one of the most valuable items in the ancient world (so valuable that it appeared on coins), and ended up eating it into extinction. Truly, nothing says Humanity like destroying the thing you love most.

Did you know that ancient Greeks supposedly administered a drug called nepenthe to those grieving to take away their sorrows? It appears in Greek mythology, most notably Homer’s Odyssey. Some historians say that because it is part of legend, it’s highly unlikely it actually ever existed. Others think it was real, but a botanical remedy similar to opium that was never recreated. I wish I could use nepenthe instead of antidepressants!!

This content was created with the help of AI.