Thinking of how technologically advanced our world is right now, it’s hard to imagine that there may have been ancient technological discoveries way ahead of its time, in fact, some we’ve not even been able to replicate in this day and age! Today we have a look at some incredible ancient technological discoveries that will leave you wondering how on earth they managed to do that!

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8 - Damascus Steel…
Between 1100 and 1700 AD, the Middle East was using an incredibly strong steel called Damascus Steel. Many swords and knives were made with this special steel, which up till this point has never been recreated. The blades were able to slice through anything, even rocks and metals! The steel was thought to be imported from India and Sri Lanka, called wootz steel, and underwent a special process that made the material soft, strong and flexible all at the same time. The process in which the steel was made has been lost since 1750 AD, and it’s thought that the ores used in the recipe had dried up, so people stopped making the steel. Today it’s still a guessing game.


7 - Contact lenses…
It was 1632 when Rene Descartes invented the first pair of contact lenses. Leonardo da Vinci had a similar vision, excuse the pun, but it never materialised. Descartes used glass tubes filled with liquid and placed them directly on the cornea. It sounds seriously uncomfortable, but apparently, it worked.


6 - Nimrud lens…
Here’s another type of lens that was created somewhere between 750-710 BC. It was discovered at the Assyrian palace of Nimrud, which is Iraq today. It’s an optical lense made from crystal rock which can magnify objects to 3 times their size. Some scientists believe it formed part of a telescope, but that hasn’t been confirmed.





5 - Difference engine…
Charles Babbage has been said to be a computer pioneer. It was Charles that invented the Difference machine in 1822. He invented computers, but sadly, never made computers. In 2002, a team got together to create a Babbage computer, 153-years after it was designed. They called it Difference Engine No. 2 and they followed Babbage’s instructions to the tee. It had 8,000 components, weighed 5 tons and was 11-feet long! This model is on display at Intellectual Ventures in Seattle.


4 - Flexible glass…
This story is based on a bit of hearsay, and we know how the game broken telephone works, so this may not be quite legit. The story stems from between 14 and 37 AD, where it’s said that flexible glass was invented by an unknown craftsman. The craftsman took a bowl that he had made using this incredible flexible glass straight to Caesar. Caesar was suitably impressed. The material was extra-special because it didn’t break but would instead just dent if dropped and could be manipulated back into shape. The Emperor had the man beheaded, after the man swore no one else knew the recipe, as he was afraid it would undermine the value of gold and silver.



3 - Greek Fire…
The Greeks once invented something that enabled them to overpower their enemies with ease, a product that people have tried to recreate today, and although it’s possible to create something similar, is not quite as effective. It was 678 CE and it was known as Greek Fire. This was a type of sticky fire or napalm, that could even burn on water. The product could be used in two separate ways. When it was first invented it was bottled and thrown at the enemy, where it would explode and cause madness and mayhem. The second way was to insert it into siphons and let it out like you would a flamethrower. The closest anyone got to recreating this particular napalm was in 1940, which would imply that the technology behind it was missing for hundreds of years!


2 - Automatically Opening Doors…
The Ancient Greeks have done it again, and around 1 AD our Hero created automatic doors. The automatic doors that we’re accustomed to today were introduced in 1931. The doors invented by Hero were way ahead of their time, but sadly, they weren’t very practical. It could take hours for the doors to open, so if you were in a hurry, you’d have a problem. To open the doors, a fire would firstly need to be lit. The heat would create atmospheric pressure in a brass vessel which would then pump water into big containers. Each container would have weights and it would work like a hydraulic system. The doors were created for the temples, so the doors could be open in time for prayer, and the same for the gates to the city.


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