Random Mysterious Ancient Inventions Science Still Can't Explain (10 items)

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  (#1) Deadly 'Greek Fire' Was a Family Secret

  It's not like anyone is aching for napalm to make a comeback, but scientists and historians are nonetheless very curious about 7th-century "Greek Fire," a deadly proto-napalm fired from ships that "would cling to flesh and was impossible to extinguish with water."  

  The Byzantine Empire wielded it with aplomb, but, like Coca-Cola Classic and Bush's Baked Beans, the recipe for Greek Fire was a protected family secret. National Geographic pulled a Mythbusters and took a guess at the ingredients in 2002, using a "bronze pump" and a "mixture of light crude oil and pine resin." The results? It wiped out a ship "in minutes."  
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  (#2) The Recipe For Damascus Steel Remains A Mystery

  Returning from the Crusades, a lot of perplexed Europeans started talking about swords wielded by Islamic warriors "that could slice through a floating handkerchief, bend 90 degrees and flex back with no damage." Fast-forward to the 21st century and the recipe for so-called "Damascus steel" is still a mystery.

  The best guess is that the blades consisted of "crucible steel," which is created by melting iron with plant matter. Still, no one knows the specific type of crucible steel used to yield such a blade.  
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  (#8) The Phaistos Disk Could Be A Prayer To An Ancient Goddess

  There were some interesting theories surrounding the artifact, as the Phaistos Disc was a mystery since it was first discovered. Originally found in 1908 in Crete, this 6-inch diameter clay disk dates back to around 1700 BC and features 241 “words” created out of 45 individual symbols, arranged in a spiral.

  Early theories thought the disc might contain "sheet music," a hymn or prayer dedicated to matriarchal deity, or an ancient proto-typewriter.

  Recently, Dr. Gareth Owens along with phoneticist Professor John Coleman, theorized that the disc was written in a Minoan script and linked the language to a prayer to the Minoan goddesses and deities of the time. The findings are still under review.
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  (#6) It's Unclear How Vikings Made Their Ulfberht Swords

  The Vikings may have used techniques or materials borrowed from the creators of Damascus steel to make their legendary "Ulfberht" swords. When archeologists discovered the Viking blades, they were shocked because "the technology needed to produce such pure metal would not be invented for another 800 years."

  In 2014, a 9th-century Viking grave was discovered in Scandanavia with an Islamic inscription meaning “for/to Allah,” linking the two worlds and making the shared knowledge plausible - but that's just a theory. The true origin of the blades is still unknown.

  In 2020, German scientists found evidence suggesting that the Ulfberht swords might have been created in Germany. 
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  (#10) It's Unclear What the Stone Spheres of Costa Rica Were Used For

  Scientists have a pretty good idea how these giant, ancient stone balls found in Costa Rica were formed. From around ca. 200 BC to AD 800, natives used "fracture, pecking, and grinding" techniques to reduce granodiorite, a large igneous stone, into these pleasing spheres. What's mysterious is why they did it.

  Ultimately, it may never be understood, since vandals have moved almost all of them from their original locations, making it impossible to test theories about their use as calendars or navigational tools. Some gullible vandals even blew the balls up, hoping to find gold - they didn't.)
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  (#4) The Antikythera Mechanism Is A Mysterious Astronomical Calendar

  Unlike the Roman dodecahedra, scientists have a pretty good idea what the so-called Antikythera Mechanism is all about. Discovered at the bottom of the sea in 1901, the intricate device was likely constructed around the end of the second century BC.  It “calculated and displayed celestial information, particularly cycles such as the phases of the moon and a luni-solar calendar,” according to research compiled in Nature.

  But we still don’t know who built it, who used it, and what they used it for, exactly. It’s also still unclear why it is “technically more complex than any known device for at least a millennium afterwards,” to quote the Nature abstract, which prompted a many “ancient aliens” and “TIME TRAVEL IS REAL!!” blog posts after it was published in 2006.

  But history, as Brian Dunning of Skeptoid notes, tells us similar gear-based technology was around two and a half millennia prior, and Occam’s Razor tells us any “siblings” of the Antikythera Mechanism, like most commonplace bronze objects of the period, were likely “recycled” into other objects. It’s still mysterious, just for less reasons than some might think.

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