10 amazing things that ancient people were doing much better than us

1. Aqueducts and hydrotechnologies h2> The problem of access to water today is acute in many regions of the world. The inhabitants of the Peruvian city of Lima in 1500 solved this problem years ago.



In Peru, heavy water crisis, has overgrown into a chronic - "explosive mixture" dirty water and environmental changes undermine the security of water supply of the whole country. However, the water company Sedapal offered revive the ancient network of stone canals, which has built more Wari culture in 500 AD. e. , to provide clean, uncontaminated water.

Huari created a perfect system of water storage, which is absorbed through the channels of mountain water during the rainy season. Water moves through the channels and fills the reservoirs at the bottom of the mountain, to maintain the level of rivers in the dry season.

The ancient advanced civilizations were known storage device and storage of drinking water. The Persians, Nabateans, Romans, haraptsy built canals, aqueducts, sewers.

2. Steel h2> 2,000 years ago, ancient people used in the Levant unique technology for forging bladed weapons




The secret of the creation of the Middle East Damascus steel unraveled through examination of samples by means of scanning electron microscopy in modern laboratories.

3. Concrete h2> The lifespan of modern concrete structures 100-120 years. The Romans built concrete buildings 2000 years ago, but they maintain the integrity of the this day




For the manufacture of concrete the Romans mixed lime, volcanic rock and sea water. The lime reacts with ash and the mixture holds together. Ancient Concrete prepared using seawater, it has a perfect crystal structure of tobermorite and has greater strength and durability.

The Roman concrete in comparison with modern cleaner. The conventional cement requires heat treatment - heating a mixture of limestone and clay up to 1450 ℃. Such production emits large dose of carbon. At the same time, used in the Roman cement lime is much less, and it was prepared by calcining limestone at 900 ℃, that require much less fuel.

4. Road Construction h2> Modern builders of roads considered an achievement if a highway built for the year. Ancestors recognized the importance of communications between cities and built roads quickly.





Khapak-Nhan - the main Andean highway. This network of roads, once used by the powerful Incas, stretches over 30,000 km. The road - the main pillar of political and economic power of the Inca Empire. She joined the production, administrative and ceremonial centers of pre-Inca cultures of the Andes. Inca Cusco was built over a century developed network of roads, which stretch through the territory of present-day Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

The Romans, too, are known as experts in the construction of roads. Around 4, 4 million square feet. km area covered with Roman roads. They were built of gravel, mud bricks and granite solidified lava. Some of these roads are still used today.

5. Cutting stone h2> On the ground, there are examples of precise cutting stone by ancient craftsmen. This filigree processing challenges to modern art. In Puma Punku is 15,000-year-old archaeological site in Bolivia. Masonry in this town looks like stones most precise cut with a diamond tool. The faces of masonry units have a perfectly straight line, perfectly tailored to each other. On the stone will not find traces of manual processing. blocks each weigh 800 tons. Attempts to recreate a copy of the masonry fiasco.

6. Agriculture h2> The first thing that comes to mind at the mention of his contemporaries and Aztec cultures of Mesoamerica - a sacrifice. These civilizations can find many other interesting contemporaries. For example, agriculture.





The Aztecs used in agriculture chinampa - "floating gardens». They filled the shallow lake bed of the Valley of Mexico.

How to build chinampa. Marshy lake bed fenced with stakes, forming a rectangular area. The stakes are joined together and strengthened. The fenced area was filled with mud and vegetable humus. Mound certainly exceed the level of the water, or plant roots become limp and rot.

Canals surrounding areas chinampa, created the illusion that these farmlands were floating on the water. That is why they are mistaken for the "floating gardens". To further stabilize these areas, the perimeter planted willow. The roots of the trees to grow and strengthen the construction of retaining walls and reduces erosion.

Chinampa allowed to harvest all year round. To do this, set up a controlled flow of water. In the rainy season the excess water threatened the harvest. A complex drainage system - dams, sluices, canals - rescued from the natural disaster. Due to disposal of human excrement to fertilize crops Aztecs created a healthy consumer environment, waste water of the city is also processed.

The system of agriculture and wastewater treatment technology of floating gardens of Mexico is so perfect that today the introduction of their attempts. All attempts were unsuccessful.

7. Walls h2> Inca civilization known for its perfect stonework. These architectural artifacts can be seen today in Machu Picchu and Sacsayhuaman in Peru.





Stone walls are drywall stacked blocks that are carefully cut and tightly fitted together without mortar. The joints of the blocks do not even insert a sheet of paper - so dense masonry. Scientists baffled by this technology. In this case, the walls are tilted inwards to prevent damage in case of earthquake. This precise method of processing a stone unfamiliar contemporaries. Attempts to recreate the technique failed.

8. Urban planning h2> In the previous century found the ancient city, which amazed how scientists and urban planners.





Archaeologists have found in Pakistan, 5,000-year-old city of Moenjodaro. To find the region has an exceptional level of urban planning and public facilities. In Moenjodaro homes equipped with bathrooms made of brick, and many of them are equipped with toilets. Sewage poured into the brick sewer that ran through the main streets and covered with slabs. Reserves of drinking water was stored in pits lined with bricks of the wedge. The city's population reached 40 thousand inhabitants.

Contemporary Moenjodaro, another unique city - Caral. It was built at the same time in Peru, on the other side of the world, in the Supe Valley. As you can see the remains of the city architect's ideas instrumentalism - the pyramids, plazas, an amphitheater, temples and residential quarters.

Karaltsy led agriculture. Eat a variety of foods, used textiles, used a complex system of counting and writing, equipped with water and developed a complex system of irrigation.

The modern architects looking at Caral inspiration for urban development. Japanese architects intend to implement construction projects that have been used in Caral to protect people from earthquakes. Karaltsy hung their homes in baskets filled with stones, which nullified the movement of the soil to prevent collapse.

9. Astronomy h2> Ancient civilizations had an outstanding understanding of the universe and its movement. In ancient Greek pottery shows the constellations in the Indian rock carvings depict the summer and winter solstice in ancient Japanese tombs inscribed star maps, the Australian aborigines hold knowledge about the creation of the world and of important astronomical events. As ancestors were able to so accurately log the cosmic events, lacking technology, remains a mystery




Recent discoveries have shown how much still highly developed ancient cultures were in the area of ​​astronomical knowledge and that they are far from primitive people, which they previously thought.

10. Weapons h2> Modern weapons far exceeds their ancient analogues of mass destruction manpower and destructiveness. However, a number of ancient weapons scientists puzzled their design and capabilities.





Greek mathematician, engineer, inventor and astronomer Archimedes (287-212 gg. BC. E.) Is believed, created teploluchevoe weapons (which is sometimes called "death ray») for the defense of ships that They attacked Syracuse - the ancient city in Sicily. According to the writer of II century BC. e. Lucian and who lived a few centuries later, Anthemius of Tralles, the weapon was made of large reflectors (perhaps made of polished bronze or copper) that are used to focus the sun's rays at the approaching ships, causing them to light up.

Although its existence - the subject of heated debate among historians, a number of tests have shown that such weapons possible. In 1973, a Greek scientist Ioannis Sakkas 70 set of mirrors with a copper coating, which sent a plywood model of a Roman warship at a distance of 50 meters. When the mirrors were focused accurately, the ship burst into flames in a few seconds


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