BlankNow that this thread has led into ancient technology in general, let me stir the pot by referring to Cremo & Thompson's "Hidden History of the Human Race", a condensation of "Forbidden Archeology". Their invesigation pushes evidence of intelligent hominid habitation way, way back in time. It's fascinatin reading. The authors are up front about the drive of their quest, which is adherence to Hindu teachings of a cyclical universe.
We moderns suffer from temporal chauvisism, the delusion that we are the smartest of all humanity [which is refuted by any teenager]. It happens that there are more tech geeks like us than anytime in history, so the odds of something useful being found are better, but it does not follow that our individual geekiness woud stand a chance if dropped into, say, King Arthur's Court like the Conneticut Yankee handyman of Mark Twain's novel. Most of Edison's inventions could have been built anytime in the Iron Age by someone "who knew what to do". I was captivated by Hapgood's "Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings" as proof of ancient capabillities until I encountered Menzies' "1421" about the immense Chinese fleet of exploration which mapped the Americas and Antarica among other things, with accurate longitude. Robert Temple is another fruitful author, whose "Crystal Sun" is about ancient lenses and optics, and "The Sirius Mystery" is about the tirbal knowledge of the Dogon, which includes the white dwarf companion of Sirius, and an even smaller thurd star detected only by perturbation studies. Our common public education is effectively an indoctrination of the popular mythology about who we are and how we got here and what is going on. It's very useful, so we sort of know what to expect from each other and how to play the game. But don't pretend that it is 'truth'. Mike Carrell
