The Why Files: Operation Podcast - 132: Time-Slip Artifacts: Modern Objects in the Ancient World - Volume 1

Episode Date: October 13, 2023

The story of the human race is a story of technology. One of our ancestors created fire and passed that knowledge along to the next generation. Then the invention of the wheel. Then agriculture, a writing system, mathematics, space travel. Within our story, empires rise and fall. Technology progresses. Civilizations are born and die. The human race continues to innovate. All of our innovations are built on previous ones. There could be no aqueduct without the arch. There could be no metal plow until someone learned how to mine iron. There could be no light bulb, no smart phone and no computer without first understanding electricity. Our progress is linear. It's orderly. But sometimes an object is discovered that's completely out of place and out of time. A computer found on a sunken Roman ship. A power plant found in a 100,000 year old cave. Evidence of a nuclear reactor from over a billion years ago. These objects shouldn't exist. But they do. Their existence violates the natural order of human progress. So if humans didn't create these items, who did? --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewhyfiles/support

If it's a flat or a squeal, a wobble or peel, your tread's worn down or you need a new wheel, wherever you go, you can get it from our Tread Experts. Until May 30th, purchase four new Michelin passenger or light truck tires and receive up to $70 by prepaid MasterCard. Conditions apply. Details at Michelin.ca. Find a Michelin Tread Experts dealer near you at TreadExperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there at Treadexperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there. Treadexperts.ca Hey, it's your buddy AJ from the Y-Files.

And Hecklefish. Right, and Hecklefish. We just wanted to tell you that if you want to start a podcast, Spotify makes it easy. It'd have to be easy for humans to understand it. Will you stop that? I'm just saying. Spotify for Podcasters lets you record and edit podcasts from your computer. I don't have a computer.

Do you have a phone? Of course I have a phone. I'm not a savage. Well, with Spotify, you can record podcasts from your phone, too. Spotify makes it easy to distribute your podcast to every platform and you can even earn money. I do need money. What do you need money for? You kidding? I'm getting killed on guppy support payments.

These 3X wives are expensive. You don't want to support your kids? What are you need money for? You kidding? I'm getting killed on guppy support payments. These 3X wives are expensive. What, you don't want to support your kids? What are you, my wife's lawyer now? Never mind. And I don't know if you noticed, but all Y-Files episodes are video too. And there's a ton of other features, but we can't be here all day. Will you settle down? I need you to hurry up with this stupid

commercial. I got a packed calendar today. I'm sorry about him. Anyway, check out Spotify for podcasters. It's free, no catch, and you can start today. Are we done? We're done, but you need to check your attitude. Excuse me, but I don't have all day to sit here and talk about Spotify. Look, this would

go a lot faster if you would just let me get through it without... And now we go live to Tyrrell's Farm. Down here in Herefordshire, the folks are busy bringing in a bumper crop of local spuds. And of course, when you have the finest potatoes, only the tastiest ingredients will do. That's where the tasting team come in. Big chilli coming through!

All this ensures their crisps taste de-ruddy-licious. In fact, the Tyrrell's team have done such a spiffing job, people across the land are calling their crisps terribly, terribly tasty. The story of the human race is a story of technology. One of our ancestors created fire and passed that knowledge along to the next generation. Then the invention of the wheel, then agriculture, our writing system, mathematics, space travel. Within our story, empires rise and fall and technology progresses. Civilizations are born and die and the human race continues to innovate. All of our innovations are built on previous ones.

There could be no aqueduct without the arch. There could be no metal plow until someone learned how to mine iron. There could be no light bulb, no smartphone, and no computer without first understanding electricity. Our progress is linear. It's orderly. But sometimes an object is discovered that's completely out of place and out of time. A computer found on a sunken Roman ship.

A power plant found in a 100,000 year old cave, evidence of a nuclear reactor from over a billion years ago. These objects shouldn't exist, but they do. Their existence violates the natural order of human progress. So if humans didn't create these items, who did? In 1962, an article was published about an archaeological expedition that explored the Bayanhar Mountains of Tibet in 1937. The team, led by archaeologist Chi Pu Tei, discovered 716 granite disks engraved with characters that looked like hieroglyphics. Each disk was 9 inches in diameter and 1 inch thick, with a perfect 1-inch hole in the center.

The stones were dated to more than 12,000 years ago, but they weren't the strangest thing found at the site. Not even close. The team discovered advanced star maps and the remains of unusual humanoids. The beings were small with thin bodies and large heads. Ah! Aliens! Well, it took more than 20 years of trying, but the markings on the disks were finally translated. The disks told the story of a vessel that traveled to Earth from outer space.

The inscriptions described a crash in the mountains of Tibet and what happened to the survivors of the crash. I knew it! The writing also gave the beings a name. They were called the Dropa. The Dropa came down from the clouds in their aircraft. Our men, women, and children hid in the caves ten times before sunrise. When at last we understood the sign language of the dropper,

we realized that the newcomers had peaceful intentions. These findings were published in 1962 by Professor Sum Um Nui, but as could be expected, his peers didn't take it seriously. The story and the stones resurfaced six years later, but this time in Russia. Scientists discovered the granite used to make the stones contained extremely high amounts of cobalt and other heavy metals. These properties would have made the stones very hard to carve with primitive tools 12,000 years ago.

The stones were tested with an oscillograph, a device used to read current and voltage. The results indicated the stones had once been electrically charged or might've been electrical conductors. After these new discoveries, the stones disappeared again until they turned up in the Banpo Museum in China. In 1974, Austrian engineer Ernst Wegner went to the museum to see the stones. Although the museum wouldn't give him any information about them, he was allowed to take photographs of the stones.

That same year, a book was published called Sun Gods in Exile by David Agamon, and that book would prove everything. Sun Gods in Exile tells the story of Oxford professor Carl Robin Evans and his 1947 expedition into the Bayanhar Mountains. There he encountered living droppa, where he learned their language and learned their history from their religious leader, Lurgan La. Lurgan La told him the droppa came from a planet in the Sirius system and they had come to Earth on an exploratory mission 12,000 years ago. Their ship crash-landed in the Himalayas

and stranded the droppa on Earth forever. The book was based on the journal of Dr. Carl Robin Evans, and that journal had pictures. This is Hui Pa La and Biz La, the rulers of the dropa in 1947. The journal describes the dropa as a small race, averaging 4'2 in height and only 60 pounds. They have large heads with large blue eyes. In 1994, German scientist Hartwig Hausdorff

went to the Banpo Museum in China and asked to see the stones for himself. Well, he was told the stones were destroyed on official orders. When Hausdorff tried to look further into the Dropa tribe and their stones, the Chinese government said they had no record of any stones or a tribe known as the Dropa. As far as the Chinese government was concerned, the Dropa never existed. In the year 1900, off the coast of a small Greek island, a group of men were diving for sponges. During one dive at a depth of around 150 feet, they found something very unexpected, an ancient Roman shipwreck. The ship was full of ancient Greek artifacts dating back over 2,000 years. Coins, pottery, statues, and many other items were brought back to the surface. Among the wreckage was a heavily weathered block made of wood and calcified bronze.

The block was taken to the museum with the rest of the artifacts, but it didn't really look like anything, so it was mostly ignored. But two years later, archaeologist Valerio Stace took a closer look at the unassuming block. It didn't take long for him to discover there was a lot more to the block than people realized. He could make out the shape of a large gear embedded in the calcified stone. He believed it was some sort of ancient astronomical clock. Mainstream archaeologists dismissed the idea as prochronistic, meaning to advance for the time period or the wreckage.

The ship was underwater for 2,000 years. The type of technology needed to build an astronomical clock just didn't exist yet. In fact, gears of this quality wouldn't be invented until the 14th century, about 1,700 years later. Mainstream scientists said the object must have found its way onto the ship at a much later time, and therefore wasn't all that special or important. So the object was placed on a shelf in a dark back room of a museum, and that's where it stayed, completely ignored for 50 years. But in 1951, Yale professor Derek J. DeSola Price was researching

ancient clocks. He heard about a mysterious object discovered off the coast of a small Greek island called Antikythera. Price looked into the artifact, but his findings didn't impress his colleagues. But he would continue researching the device for the next 23 years. Then in 1974, with the help of a nuclear physicist, Price used X-ray and gamma-ray imaging to examine 82 pieces of the rock. This imaging revealed an assortment of bronze gears of various sizes, all connected to a central crank. As the gears spun, they would

move hands on the object's face, like the hands of a clock. But this device wasn't designed to tell you what time it was. It was designed to do much, much more. Nothing like this instrument is preserved elsewhere. Nothing comparable to it is known from any ancient scientific text or literary allusion. It is a bit frightening to know that just before the fall of their great civilization, the ancient Greeks had come so close to our age, not only in their thought but also in their scientific technology. By 2009, scientists had gathered enough scans and images to reconstruct what the Antikythera mechanism had looked like. It had 30 gears intricately designed

and expertly crafted. The gears drove dials and hands on the front and back of the device. Despite all this information, they still didn't know precisely what it did. While the world waited for more information on this mysterious device, that opened the door to a lot of theories. I love theories. I know you do. One theory said the device was a piece of technology taken from Atlantis. No culture on Earth at the time had this level of technology. If the mechanism was something powerful or important,

it would make sense that Atlantean survivors would want to keep it safe. Have to hide it from the Lemurians. Right. Some people believe the mechanism was so advanced it was proof of a creator, like scaffolding left around a building after construction was completed. Another theory was that it was left behind by aliens, either accidentally or as a gift.

Alien technology would explain how it ended up in the first century BC. But the most alarming opinion was that the Antikythera mechanism was a doomsday device, a weapon to depopulate the Earth, created by an ancient race of reptilians. Lizard people! Yeah, maybe it was a clock used to calculate a time when the weapon would be deployed. Well, lizard people are very punctual. Despite all this evidence, one of the most prevalent theories was that the whole thing was a hoax. Some people said it was nothing more than a single brass gear,

and the scientists were making up the rest. What we do know for sure is the Antikythera mechanism isn't going anywhere. Even though it's been 123 years since it was pulled out of the ocean, we're still uncovering more of its secrets all the time. Eventually, we will know everything there is to know about this fascinating device, and maybe even design our own. But even if we can build one, the question is, should we? If it's a flat or a squeal, a wobble or peel, your tread's worn down or you need a new wheel,

wherever you go, you can get it from our tread experts. Until May 30th, purchase four new Michelin passenger or light truck tires and receive up to $70 by prepaid MasterCard. Conditions apply. Details at Michelin.ca. Find a Michelin tread experts dealer near you at treadexperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there at treadexperts.ca. You sailed beyond the horizon in search of an island scrubbed from every map.

You battled krakens and navigated through storms. Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible. In the Qinghai province of China, on the southern shore of Tuoso Lake, is a pyramid-shaped mountain called Mount Baigang. In 1996, archaeologist Bai Wu was exploring a cave inside Mount Baigang when he made an unexplainable and controversial discovery.

Inside the cave, you found iron scraps all over the dirt floor. Who found iron scraps? You found. I found? You found. Me? You. You found. I found? You found. Me? You. So confused.

Along with the iron scraps, there were oddly shaped stones standing on end. But most mysterious of all, there were iron pipes running deep into the mountain. And here the story takes a turn, because the cave wasn't naturally formed. It was a triangular shaped entrance carved by somebody. And Mount Baigang wasn't a mountain. It was a pyramid, also constructed by somebody. The more scientists looked at Mount Baigang, the more questions they had. None of this made sense. This is the middle of nowhere. Nobody lives there. And as far as anyone knew, nobody ever had. And those iron pipes? According to the Beijing Institute of Geology, the pipes were forged more than 150,000 years ago.

The pipes vary in size from 18 inches in diameter to as thin as a grain of rice. And later expeditions found pipes big enough to walk through. And there were humans living all over the world at that time, but metallurgy wasn't discovered until about 10,000 BC. So who created the pipes and why? While there is no clear purpose for the pipes, more are found at Lake Tuosu, 260 feet away,

along with more strange stones. The pipes at the lake are both above and below the water level. Some researchers believe the pipes were used to pump water into the pyramid, possibly for cooling purposes. Considering Tuoso is a salt lake, one theory suggests the pipes may have been used for a process called electrolysis. When you pass an electric current through water,

the water molecules separate into oxygen and hydrogen atoms. Salt water is a better conductor than fresh water. The salt helps separate the oxygen and hydrogen more efficiently. And hydrogen can be used for a lot of things, like refining oil, treating metals, and processing foods. But hydrogen can also be used as fuel. In addition to dating the pipes, the Beijing Institute of Geology tested the pipe's composition. They're made up of 30% rusted iron. They also contain large amounts of silicon dioxide, which is commonly found in quartz, as well as calcium oxide, also known as quicklime. These are interesting materials. Iron conducts heat and electricity. And when quartz is subjected

to stress, like millions of gallons of water flowing through a pipe, it generates electricity. This is called the piezoelectric effect. Remember, the Great Pyramid in Egypt is also built near a water source. Well, technically, it's on top of one. There's a large aquifer under the Giza Plateau. Also, there are chambers within the Great Pyramid made of quartz, and metal pipes have been discovered within the pyramid complex. Nikolai Tesla built his famous Wardarton Cliff Tower using these same principles.

Using this ancient method, Tesla believed he could generate free unlimited energy that could be beamed wirelessly to any place on earth. The Illuminati would never allow that. They didn't. When Tesla was close to a discovery, his investors pulled their funding and invested in oil instead.

Wharton Cliff Tower was eventually abandoned. Now, if you're interested in specifically how this works and what happened to Tesla's tower, I've linked to another episode below. Now, calcium oxide or quicklime found in the pipes is also interesting. Quicklime is highly volatile and chemically reactive. If you expose quicklime to water, it causes an exothermic reaction. In other words, it generates heat. Lots of heat.

One liter of water combined with about seven pounds of quicklime generates about three and a half megajoules of energy. That's basically a gallon of gas. And if you remove the water, quicklime reverts back to its original state. And as long as you have a stable water source, like a lake, you could repeat this process over and over again. Now, besides these common materials, the pipes also contain 8% of a material that could not be identified. But here's a thought. We've got iron pipes that can carry water or some other medium. Electricity to convert water into oxygen and hydrogen. We've got quicklime, which, when exposed to water, creates heat. The heat causes the hydrogen to

expand. The expansion of the quartz within the pipes generates even more electricity. And this process can repeat over and over again, all happening inside a pyramid. Well, that's the same process used to make the Great Pyramid of Giza a power plant, all built 150,000 years ago. I know what that sounds like to me. If it's a flat or a squeal, a wobble or peel, your tread's worn down or you need a new wheel, wherever you go, you can get it from our tread experts. Until May 30th, purchase four new Michelin passenger or light truck tires

and receive up to $70 by prepaid MasterCard. Conditions apply. Details at Michelin.ca. Find a Michelin Tread Experts dealer near you at TreadExperts.ca. From tires to auto repair, we're always there. TreadExperts.ca. Oh, excuse me. Why are you walking so close behind me? Well, you're a tall guy.

You throw a decent shadow when I'm walking in it to keep out of this bright sun. It hurts my eyes. Okay, well, you know what? With Specsavers, you can get two pairs of glasses from $149. And, oh, you'll like this. One can be a pair of prescription sunglasses. Sounds great. Where's the nearest store? Not far. Come on. Let's hurry then! To my count. One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two.

Visit Specsavers.ca for details. In the 9th century, on a grassy field somewhere in northern England, a Nordic Viking squares off against a Saxon housecarl. Before knights, the housecarl was the highly trained elite warrior of medieval Europe. Against a Viking, this warrior should have the advantage. The Saxon wears chainmail armor, while the Viking wears only leather. The Saxon has a shield, light and strong. The Viking has no shield. And the Saxon's sword is larger and stronger than the Viking's. The Saxon warrior is confident. He charges forward and takes a few heavy swings.

The Viking defends with his short sword. The Saxon steps back, confused. He's fought Vikings before. Usually their short, blunt weapons shatter when hit with heavy English steel. But this Viking has a magic sword. At least, it appears to be magic to this 9th century Saxon. Being lighter and faster, the Viking sidesteps, then lunges forward. He thrusts his razor-sharp blade through the Saxon's chainmail. His armor should have easily protected

him from this attack, but the Viking's sword pierces the chainmail like it's not even there. The Saxon falls to his knees as the Viking withdraws his sword. The Saxon, more confused than frightened, sees writing on the side of the blade. A name. It's a name he's heard before. And in that moment, everything makes sense. Then the world goes black. This blade and others like it were virtually indestructible and unbeatable in battle. They weren't elaborate swords gilded with gold or jewels, they were pretty ordinary looking. But they were easy to identify as they all shared the same inscription, Ulfbert. Created using a process that would remain unknown for centuries, the Ulfbert was a revolutionary high-tech tool.

There were only 170 of these swords left in existence, all forged sometime between 800 and 1000 AD. Though Ulfbert's swords are usually associated with Vikings, it's actually a word of Frankish origin. It was most likely the name of the swordsmith who created the blades. Now, the process of making a sword in the 11th century wasn't an easy one. In order for iron to be used as a weapon, it had to be forged into steel. So iron was mined and smelted in a furnace with charcoal, which is mostly carbon.

Iron itself is too soft to be used as a sword. The blade would bend and chip and lose its edge too quickly to be useful. The carbon hardens the iron, so it keeps its shape and sharp edge for longer. But add too much carbon, the metal becomes brittle. It took a skilled and talented smith to get the mixture just right. Now, once hot enough, the iron forms a gooey, spongy mass called a bloom. And after the bloom is removed from the heat,

it's hammered over and over again to remove impurities known as slag. Slag is typically trace amounts of silicon, manganese, sulfur, and other elements. Blacksmiths would heat and hammer the metal over and over again to separate as much slag from the iron as possible. And because of the limited technology of the time, the impurity of the steel was still pretty high, and the amount of carbon they were able to get into the metal was pretty low. Even the best medieval steel is primitive to even the lowest quality steel that we produce today. Except for Ulfbert steel. Experts have said that an Ulfbert sword would have been like a lightsaber in medieval Europe.

And that's not that much of an exaggeration. Ulfbert swords were centuries ahead of the competition. They were superior to all others in sharpness, in strength, flexibility. Ulfbert steel was also very lightweight. This was a huge and unfair advantage in combat. The sword could withstand an enemy's blow without breaking, a common fear among warriors. In a time when fighters wore coats of chainmail, an Ulfberht sword could cut through this defense more effectively than other swords. Modern scientists have examined Ulfberht blades to try to find out what made them so special. Now, first they found that almost all impurities were removed from the steel.

Ulfbert blades also had a carbon content three times higher than other swords from the same period. Now, here's the thing. To achieve this level of purity and the carbon content of the Ulfbert sword, the metal would have need to have been liquefied. This causes carbon to dissolve into the iron, forming an alloy. The high temperature also removes impurities more effectively. A temperature of 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit is needed for this process. The resulting alloy is called crucible steel because the metal is melted in a large crucible. Now, for hundreds of years, smith tried to duplicate Ulfbert Steele, but nobody could come close. Ulfbert was a man a thousand years ahead of his time,

and nobody knows who he was. But many people still wonder, what else did he know? If it's a flat or a squeal, a wobble or peel, your dread's worn down or you need a new wheel wherever you go you can get it from our tread experts until may 30th purchase four new michelin passenger or light truck tires and receive up to 70 by prepaid mastercard conditions apply details at michelin.ca find a michelin tread experts dealer near you at treadexperts.ca locations at treadexperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there. TreadExperts.ca Oh, excuse me.

Why are you walking so close behind me? Well, you're a tall guy. You throw a decent shadow when I'm walking in it to keep out of this bright sun. It hurts my eyes. Okay, well, you know what? Spec Savers, you can get two pairs of glasses from $149 and, oh, you'll like this,savers, you can get two pairs of glasses from $149.

And, oh, you'll like this. One can be a pair of prescription sunglasses. Sounds great! Where's the nearest store? Not far. Come on. Let's hurry, then. To my count. One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two. Visit Specsavers.ca for details. Physicist Francis Perrin sat at a nuclear plant in the south of France, thinking to himself, this cannot be possible. He was examining a dark piece of uranium ore, but what he discovered didn't make sense.

This piece of uranium had somehow undergone nuclear fission. But this uranium was mined. Nuclear fission doesn't just happen in nature. And even more confusing, this uranium war was almost two billion years old. Atoms are the building blocks of all matter in the universe. The sun, the earth, the air we breathe, our bodies themselves, everything is made up of atoms. But atoms can be split. And when that happens, energy is released. And this energy can be harnessed and used to charge your phone or power an entire city or...

Splitting an atom is called nuclear fission, and it's a very delicate process. To start, you'll need a high-quality fuel source like uranium or plutonium, and this is thankfully hard to find. And even if you do find it, it has to be refined before it can be used. Next, you need pure water, like, really pure. Uh, so no chance of a nuclear reactor in here, huh? None. Unless it works with vodka. It doesn't.

The water used for the fission process in a nuclear power plant has to have all minerals removed. Then it's filtered and finally distilled. If there's even just a few contaminated parts per million in the water, fission won't happen. Naturally, uranium contains a very consistent and specific amount of the isotope uranium-235. And when U-235 is split, for a brief moment it absorbs a neutron and is turned into U-236. Then U-236 is split into other elements like barium, krypton, or strontium. Since all natural uranium decays at the same rate, any uranium pulled out of the Earth should have the same exact amount of U-235. The only way, literally the only way, for uranium ore to have a lower

percentage of U-235 is through nuclear fission. So Francis Perrin was faced with concrete evidence that nuclear fission had not only occurred before it was discovered, but it happened 1.8 billion years before. After further study, Perrin and his peers concluded the uranium ore had to be natural, and fission somehow occurred naturally. But American chemist Glenn Seaborg didn't agree. He said in order for U-235 to burn through fission, the conditions would have needed to be exactly right. They'd have to be perfect, too perfect for nature. Man-made nuclear reactors are built with extreme precision, and no natural water source would even be close to pure enough to keep the reaction going. For this to happen on Earth two billion years ago was impossible. Further investigation revealed

high concentrations of fission byproducts within the mine, indicating nuclear chain reactions had definitely taken place. Also, the geology of the region contained radioactive waste that proved the controlled use of a nuclear reactor that ran for 500,000 years. At the time the reactor was operating, the only life on Earth was single-celled organisms. Or... Out-of-place artifacts are sometimes called oo-parts, and there are a lot of them out there. These were just a few of my favorites. But how many of these objects are really out of place? Now, I love the legend of the Dropa stones, but it's ultimately disappointing.

The original story from 1962 is credited to writer Reinhard Wegman, but no record of a writer by that name can be found. Same with the archaeologists who discovered the stones, Chu Pu Tei, and some Um Nui, the professor who studied them. They don't exist either. No academic works can be found for either of them, and their names aren't even Chinese. Wegener's photos of the dropa discs are pretty low resolution. You can't see any details like the hieroglyphics the stones supposedly had. It's more likely what he was taking a picture of was a jade B-disc. B-discs are elaborately decorated discs cut from jade, and B-discs are

old. They've been dated as early as 3000 BC and maybe even older, but they were fairly common. The only mystery is we really don't know what the discs were for. They probably have something to do with funerals because they've been found in graves of important people. And there's David Agamon's book, Exile of the Sun Gods, which details an expedition into Tibet. On that expedition, a race of people is encountered who call themselves the Dropa. The Dropa claim they were descendants of extraterrestrials. The book tells the story of their UFO crash, their history, and the artifacts they left behind, which included discs with mysterious hieroglyphics. Such a great story. It is, but it never happened. Oh no. In 1995, Agamon,

whose real name is David Gaiman, sat for an interview with the magazine The Fortean Times. He admitted that the story was all made up. The narrative was edited by David Agamon and included a photograph of a curious disc-shaped plate embossed with pictograms that seemed to be part of a record of the journey of the star beings from their homeworld. The author, David Gaiman, admitted to FT recently it had been written as satire on the alien intervention in human evolution genre. Still, it is regarded in some quarters as an authentic ancient astronaut event. He claimed it was his greatest hoax and said his only regret was that the book didn't sell better. There isn't a single person, living or dead, that's been confirmed to have seen a drop of stone, so I think this one is a hoax.

Ow. Now, the Antikythera mechanism is not a hoax. Ow. That is a real object, and it was found on an ancient Roman shipwreck. It really was on that ship 2,000 years ago. All of that is true. But despite all the wild theories surrounding the device, the truth is actually anticlimactic and comes down to a simple misunderstanding. Many people assume, and many journalists state, the Antikythera mechanism is the only device of its kind, and that it was created with technology

far beyond what existed at the time. Well, that's not true. Devices like this one are well-documented in ancient writings and were known about long before it was found in 1900. What made the Antikythera mechanism special was that it survived. It's the only known artifact of one of these devices in existence. Another misconception is that we don't know what it does, but we actually do. Well, how do we know? It has labels on it.

Oh. Small colored stones show the position and motions of the planets. The sun and moon were shown relative to the constellations of the zodiac. It predicted solar and lunar eclipses and what color the eclipses would be. It had a 365-day solar calendar and a lunar calendar 19 years long. A small colored stone rotated to show the phases of the moon. 365-day solar calendar, and a lunar calendar 19 years long. A small colored stone rotated to show the phases of the moon. There was even a dial showing a countdown to the next Olympic Games,

so it probably wasn't created by aliens. Well, maybe aliens are big sports fans. Maybe, but aliens probably follow sports using equipment more advanced than something made from gears. Plus, the device has been recreated using X-ray and gamma ray imaging. Turns out, the thing wasn't all that accurate. So the Antikythera device is real and a fascinating piece of engineering, but it isn't an out-of-place artifact. If it's a flat or a squeal, a wobble or peel,

your tread's worn down or you need a new wheel, wherever you go, you can get it from our tread experts. Until May 30th, purchase four new Michelin passenger or light truck tires and receive up to $70 by prepaid MasterCard. Conditions apply. Details at Michelin.ca. Find a Michelin tread experts dealer near you at treadexperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there.

Treadexperts.ca. Oh, excuse me. Why are you walking so close behind me? Well, you're a tall guy. You throw a decent shadow when I'm walking in it to keep out of this bright sun. It hurts my eyes. Okay, well, you know what? With Specsavers, you can get two pairs of glasses from $149. And, oh, you'll like this.

One can be a pair of prescription sunglasses. Sounds great! Where's the nearest store? Not far. Come on. Let's hurry then! To my count. One, two, one, two, one, two, one. Visit specsavers.ca for details. Next, the Mount Bygon Pyramid probably isn't a pyramid.

In fact, the word bygon just means hill in the local dialect. Now this is getting depressing. While the caves may appear man-made, they probably aren't. The triangular shape of the entrance only looks that way from a certain angle, and there's no indication of two collapsed entrances or anything artificially created. The pipes, though? They can't really be explained. Yaha! They really do appear to be forged metal pipes.

They're really made of rusted iron, quartz, and quicklime. That's all true. And the archaeologists who discovered them, by you, is a real person. Who's real? You is. I is? No, you is. Me is?

You. That's what I said. Look, I don't want to do this again. Who doesn't? Me. You? Stop it! The mainstream theory is that the bygone pipes are just tree roots.

Tree roots? Yep. Tree roots can turn to stone through a process known as permineralization, which is a type of fossilization. This happens over a long period, often taking thousands to millions of years. Now, this theory sounds plausible, but the only source for the claim is an article by Xinmin Weekly from 2003. The article was originally in Chinese,

but the English translation says they found fossilized plant matter inside the tubes. This could be proof that the pipes are in fact tree roots or indicate at some point in the last 150,000 years, algae or moss grew inside the pipes. It's still a mystery. Now, on the surface, the Ulfberht swords defy science. Metal of such high quality didn't exist at the time. Except it did. It was rare, but it did exist.

You've probably heard of Damascus steel. Damascus steel is one of the most legendary steels ever made. It's extremely durable and contains almost no impurities. The traditional method of producing Damascus steel has actually been lost to history, but experts believe the process involves layering iron and steel or multiple types of steel. The metals are then forged together by repeated folding and welding. This process may be repeated many times to create hundreds or even thousands of layers. This is what creates the unique patterns that Damascus steel is known for. Damascus steel was of quality equal to and probably even better than the Ulfberht swords. Damascus blades were around a thousand years

earlier. They just didn't become widely known until many years later. But nobody in Europe was producing steel like this until Ulfberht. Ulfberht's swords were extremely rare and extremely expensive. An average soldier wouldn't have used one of these and probably never even saw one. They were so expensive, not just because of their quality, they were forged with raw materials not found in Europe. Most likely, steel ingots from Asia were brought by merchants to the Rhineland, which is now Germany. After being forged in the Rhineland, they were most likely shipped north to Scandinavia.

Many still believe such advanced blades would have been impossible to create with medieval technology, but modern blacksmiths have been able to replicate the process. It's not easy to do, but it is possible. Ulfert was, during his time, one of the most talented weapons makers in the world. Though nobody knows who he is, a thousand years later, people still know his name.

The Oklo Reactor legend is partly true and partly false. First, chemist Glenn Seaborg never said it had to be man-made. He did say, for it to be naturally occurring, the conditions would have to be perfect. People then took that as a claim and ran with it. In order for a chain reaction to occur, the amount of U-235 would need to be at critical mass, around 3 to 5 percent. Now, the current amount found in natural uranium is 0.7 percent. This isn't enough for fission to occur. But 1.8 billion years ago, the percentage of U-235 would have been much higher, enough to start a nuclear chain reaction. The likelihood of water being pure enough is slim,

but not impossible. There's chemical evidence that a nuclear reaction did occur. Most articles and videos about the Oklo reactor describe it as a nuclear explosion, like an atomic bomb, but that's not what happened. The uranium did undergo natural fission, but it was a slow burn that happened over 500,000 years.

That's not as dramatic as a mushroom cloud, but it's pretty close to how modern nuclear reactors work. And that brings up an interesting point. In the distant future, all evidence of the human race will be completely gone. If a cataclysm wiped out the human race tomorrow, it would take just a few years for nature to reclaim urban areas. In a few thousand years, all cities are buried. In a hundred thousand years, all human remains are fossilized. In a million years, all evidence of the human race

will have mineralized. Even styrofoam and plastic turns to stone and crumbles. In 10 million years, all that stone, the fossils, and every bit of evidence of the entire human race is recycled back into the Earth's mantle. An archaeologist far in the future would never know we even existed, unless he finds and tests uranium. Evidence of our nuclear technology would still be detectable in uranium. That future archaeologist will be confused because even though there's no evidence of civilization or technology, the uranium he finds will show still be detectable in uranium. That future archaeologist will be confused because even though there's no evidence of civilization or technology, the uranium he finds will show evidence of fission. Other scientists will come up with theories about nuclear reactors

that spontaneously appear in nature under perfect conditions. But the archaeologist feels there's more to the story. He has a nagging sense that, millions of years ago, someone was here. And who's to say that this hasn't already happened? And that future archaeologist is us. Oh, excuse me. Why are you walking so close behind me? Well, you're a tall guy. You throw a decent shadow when I'm walking in it to keep out of this bright sun. It hurts my eyes. Okay, well you know at Specsavers you can get two pairs of glasses from $149 and oh you'll like this, one can be a pair of prescription sunglasses. Sounds great. Where's the nearest store? Not far, come on. Let's hurry then. To my count. One, two, one, two, 2-1. Visit Specsavers.ca for details.

Mom, Mom, did you see my race? Of course I did, darling. Look, you did your best. You tried. The thing is, it's not about winning. It's about taking part. Next year you might do better. But I did win, Mom.

You did? When it's sunny, make sure you can still see. At Specsavers, get two pairs of glasses from $149, and one can be prescription sunglasses. Hey, the sun won't wait. Visit Specsavers.ca for details. Conditions apply. Thank you so much for hanging out with us today. My name is AJ.

There's Hecklefish. Hola. This has been the Y-Files. If you had fun or learned anything, do him a favor. Subscribe, comment, like, share. That stuff been the Y files. If you had fun or learned anything, do him a favor, subscribe, comment, like, share that stuff really helps the channel. And like every topic we cover here on the Y files today's was recommended by you. So if there's a story you'd like to see or learn more about, go to the Y files.com slash tips. And if like me, you're sad at the end of every episode,

check out the Y files discord. It's free to join. There's thousands of people on there and 24 seven, there's somebody talking about something weird and something fun. And special thanks to our patrons who make the channel possible. Every episode is dedicated to you, and I can't thank you enough for your generosity. Now, if you'd like to support the channel, consider becoming a member on Patreon. For as little as $3 a month, you keep the channel going. You get access to videos early without commercials, early access to fun products

like the hecklefish talking plushie and two extra live streams a week just for you. Another great way to support the channel is grab something from the Y-File store. Grab yourself a hecklefish t-shirt and stick your fist in one of these fistable mugs or get one of these hecklefish tugging fish animal fish dolls. That's going to do it. Until next time, be safe, be kind, and know that you are appreciated. I played Polybius in Area 51 A secret code inside the Bible said I was I love my UFOs and paranormal fun As well as music, so I'm singing like I should

But then another conspiracy theory becomes the truth, my friends And it never ends, no it never ends I feel the crab cat and I got stuck inside Mel's home With MKUltra being only two away. Did Stanley Kubrick fake the moon landing alone on a film set? Were the shadow people there? Aliens just fought the smiling man I'm told, and his name was cold And I can't believe I'm dancing with the fish Head to fish on Thursday night, Wednesday, J.J. When the wild boars have to be off to the night

All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth So the wild boars have its feet all through the night The Mothman sightings and the solar storm still come To a god, the secret city underground Mysterious number stations, planets are both two Project Stargate and where the dark watchers found We're in a simulation, don't you worry though The black knight said a lie, he told me so I can't believe I'm dancing with the fish

Heck, no fish on Thursday nights when they chase you And the white bouts out everything all through the night All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth So wipe out everything all through the night And the fish on Thursday nights when they chase you And wipe out everything all through the night All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth And the wild birds laugh at me all through the night All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth

So the wild birds laugh at me all through the night You do loves to dance on the dance floor Because she is a camel And camels love to dance when the feeling is right on wasting time Gertie loves to dance, Gertie loves to dance You sailed beyond the horizon in search of an island scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms. Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen.

Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible. You searched for your informant, who disappeared without a trace. You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed. You swept the city, driving closer to the truth, while curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen.

Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. You sailed beyond the horizon in search of an island scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms. Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen.

Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible.