An ancient nuclear weapon
that turned a city to glass.
A pillar made of iron,
impervious to decay.
And a mystical chemical elixir that turns lead
into gold.
Today, many of us believe that we're living
in a civilization that has reached the height
of technological innovation.
But all around us,
there are clues that an ancient world
once existed which possessed
extraordinary feats of engineering,
chemistry and mechanical marvels.
What innovations can be found in the legends of the past?
And who were the masterminds behind what we might call
impossible ancient inventions?
Well, that is what we'll try and find out.
♪ ♪
SHATNER: This Mediterranean stronghold was once the most beautiful
and powerful city of ancient Greece.
But in 213 BC,
the Romans wanted to take it for themselves
and began a siege,
deploying a formidable force
of over 60 warships
equipped with the latest devices
to support their assault.
Yet they would soon discover that overpowering the defenses
at Syracuse would be a terrifying task
as they faced the ingenious inventions
of the great mathematician Archimedes.
TOK THOMPSON: Archimedes is a huge figure in intellectual history,
and he was a-a scientist,
he was an inventor, he was a philosopher.
He did many, many important inventions,
such as the Archimedes' screw,
which was basically a screw
to draw water up from the waterways so you can irrigate.
And he was located in Syracuse,
so when the Romans decided to lay siege to the city,
we have Archimedes using his considerable intellect
and his considerable practical skills
and technological skills to try to help save his home city.
LANCE GEIGER: One of the things he did is he built numerous kinds
of catapults and ballistae--
things that threw bolts and rocks.
And so they could never even get close
with their big siege towers.
He also used his knowledge of levers.
You can, say, lever out a huge rock
and drop it right on a ship.
JEFF HECHT: Archimedes was a master of tools of war.
He could try the Claw of Archimedes,
and it was an iron claw like my hand.
And it reached out from shore,
grabbed the ship,
pressed it down, and caused it to sink.
But one of the things that he may have had
was the idea of the death ray.
SHATNER: In addition to the monstrous claw,
the great thinker invented a devastating new technology
that could attack ships
before they reached the island fortress.
It's a weapon shrouded in mystery and myth
that has come to be known as Archimedes' death ray.
GEIGER: Archimedes' death ray
had some beam of magic electrical
or-or energy beam that could reach out
and sink these Roman ships,
set them on fire from a distance.
Of course, fire is terrifying at sea
because the ship's gonna burn to the waterline.
So you're either gonna burn to death or you're gonna drown.
Neither one of those are happy conclusions.
So, this idea that ancient Greeks
in the third century BC
had some beam
that could reach out and sink these Roman ships,
set them on fire from a distance,
it just sparks the imagination.
SHATNER: The ingenious inventions of Archimedes
repelled Rome's nautical assault for over a year.
Eventually, in 212 BC, the Roman army
was able to breach the wall of the outer city
and take control of Syracuse.
And at 78 years old,
Archimedes was mistakenly killed by a Roman soldier.
Today, more than 2,200 years
after the siege of Syracuse,
the legend of Archimedes' death ray
continues to mystify us.
One of the fun things about thinking about ancient devices,
there are these ones that have been a mystery.
We think of them as impossible things
for ancients to have done.
And certainly, for most of human history,
it's really fundamentally hard
to get a ray beam to be really tight and energetic.
But we really don't know how they did it.
SHATNER: How did Archimedes invent
such an advanced weapon technology
thousands of years ago?
Well, some experts theorize that he devised
a surprisingly simple solution.
He harnessed the power of the Sun.
On a crisp autumn day, students from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
align dozens of mirrors throughout the campus
and wait for the Sun to shine.
GEIGER: One of the most interesting experiments
was with Archimedes' death ray.
They built a-a model of a piece of the ship,
and they took about 40 mirrors,
and they held them up to the Sun.
When they got them all focused
and got ten minutes of good sun,
they were able to catch wood planking--
like just chunks of wood-- on fire.
So it does suggest that the Archimedes' death ray
is not a crazy idea.
You know, we don't really know what happened,
but this shows that something sure could've happened
that made the Archimedes' death ray
a totally interesting and plausible story.
MICHIO KAKU: We have to commend them for trying
to duplicate the conditions
that existed 2,000 years ago in building this device.
They were able to set a small fire,
but a fire that could knock out a fleet of enemy ships
probably was not done.
The distances are enormous.
So, it's possible to focus the light,
it's possible to create a fire,
but not over the distances involved and the number
of fleets of ships that are coming at you.
SHATNER: The truth behind Archimedes' death ray
is still shrouded in mystery.
Archeological evidence of the invention
has never been found,
and there are no surviving records from Archimedes himself.
In fact, the first known mention of Archimedes using mirrors
appears 700 years after the siege of Syracuse
in a work by Greek mathematician Anthemius of Tralles.
It was pure speculation that he had used some sort of
large mirror or focusing device.
But this idea of a directed energy beam is a powerful idea.
And then that carries through to the technologies of today.
Today, we use lasers.
We use them to shoot missiles out of the sky from our ships.
Archimedes was talking about death rays,
something that we wouldn't see for a few more thousand years.
We're talking about laser beams.
Laser beams that have enough power
to literally fry the enemy,
to punch a hole in the hull of enemy ships.
Archimedes was onto something, a new form of warfare,
but the state of the matter is, we simply don't know.
SHATNER: Whether Archimedes' death ray existed or not,
the details of this mythic invention suggests...
...that even our most advanced modern technology
may have started in the ancient world.
THOMPSON: We like to think that science is building steadily
on earlier achievements.
That it's sort of a steady linear progression
of adding knowledge and technology.
What we often find is that civilizations
go in-in spurts, and-and-and they can disappear,
and whole knowledge can disappear.
Civilizations can get invaded.
Libraries can catch on fire.
And so, a lot of our technological process
seem to be, every once in a while, reinventing the wheel.
SHATNER: Could some of today's
most cutting-edge advancements actually be
reinventions of ancient technology?
Perhaps further evidence may be found by examining
an ancient Hindu text
said to describe an atomic weapon.
SHATNER: In the final days of World War II--
the deadliest conflict in human history--
the United States sends a B-29 bomber
over the Japanese city of Hiroshima
and drop an atomic bomb.
Three days later, another A-bomb is dropped on Nagasaki.
Having witnessed the devastating power
of atomic weaponry firsthand,
Emperor Hirohito announces Japan's total surrender,
and the Second World War comes to an end.
Before then, warfare was always done on a small scale.
It was settled right there on the battlefield.
But with nuclear weapons,
you could vaporize the enemy.
Never in the history of Homo sapiens,
until the development of the atomic bomb,
have we had the power of total annihilation.
SHATNER: According to most historians,
the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
mark the first and only time
that atomic bombs were deployed in warfare.
But is it possible that this technology
existed in the distant past?
There is a growing belief that atomic weapons
were not only invented thousands of years ago
but they were also responsible for
wiping an ancient metropolis off the map.
A team of researchers from the Indian Archaeological Survey
excavate a mound on the banks of the Indus River.
They find the remnants of a vast city,
dating back an astonishing 5,000 years,
called Mohenjo-Daro.
THOMPSON: Mohenjo-Daro
is one of the first real cities in the world.
It seems to have been one of the great centers
of what is called the Harappan civilization.
This was a very, very well-planned,
very successful civilization.
It had several cities, but Mohenjo-Daro is the largest,
stretching over 250 acres.
It had thousands and thousands of people.
They had sewage systems.
They had bathing systems.
And then a very strange thing about it is its rapid demise.
It seems to, uh, disappear very, very quickly
from the archeological record.
SHIMKHADA: Mohenjo-Daro was a vital,
thriving society civilization for many thousands of years.
And suddenly, by around 1200 BCE,
the civilization vanished.
That's another baffling story.
Some kind of disaster
killed thousands and thousands of people.
Mohenjo-Daro means the "Mound of the Dead"
in Urdu language.
Something unspeakable happened in the site.
Even though experts agree that Mohenjo-Daro
had at least 40,000 people living,
we only found 43 skeletons so far.
Which is very strange, because we are supposed to find
more human remains.
So, what happened to the humans there?
One of the kind of amazing features
is this scene of what appears to be massive destruction.
They've discovered over 40 bodies,
clearly wiped out together.
And researchers have found evidence
of high levels of radioactivity in these skeletons.
And I find this fascinating because of a couple of things.
One is, you know, could this have been a nuclear explosion?
ANDREW COLLINS: The evidence on the ground
during excavations seem to reveal
high levels of radioactivity.
And this started to suggest
that the ancient peoples
did indeed have what we might describe as atomic bombs.
SHATNER: Atomic bombs leave a clear
radioactive signature after detonation.
And while these radioactive skeletons
are certainly intriguing,
it's not the only evidence of a nuclear event.
COLLINS: One of the most mysterious aspects of Mohenjo-Daro
was the discovery of vitrified glass
and evidence of fusion.
It was found that stones had quite literally melted,
and that this was being found at Mohenjo-Daro.
Very similar to what happened at Nagasaki and Hiroshima
in the 20th century.
SHATNER: If one of the oldest civilizations
really was destroyed by atomic warfare,
would there be a historical record
of such a monumental event?
Well, some believe there is, in a 5,000-year-old Hindu text
that speaks of weapons of mass destruction
deployed during a great ancient war.
PRAVEEN MOHAN: According to historical text
called Mahabharata,
there was an ancient world war that happened in India,
very close to Mohenjo-Daro.
In the Mahabharata, there are advanced weapons
very similar to nuclear weapons.
The classic example of this is called the Brahmastra.
When you activate the Brahmastra,
it creates a huge fireball
that can destroy an entire city.
They talk about how bright it is and how hot it is.
So, it is quite possible
that there was a nuclear explosion
in Mohenjo-Daro.
SHATNER: Is the Mahabharata proof
that atomic weapons were invented thousands of years ago?
While it's a matter of debate,
there is a very strange coincidence
surrounding this text.
J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb,
who led the top-secret U.S. program
to develop the atomic bomb during World War II,
was obsessed with the Mahabharata.
And Oppenheimer developed a particular affinity
to a portion of this text called the "Bhagavad Gita."
In American Prometheus, we write quite a bit about
Oppenheimer's fascination with the "Gita."
We can quote from letters that he wrote
to his brother Frank, saying how excited he was
to have discovered these Hindu scriptures.
And Oppenheimer repeatedly
quotes from the "Gita" throughout his life.
It's a little curious in that he's a boy from New York City,
he was a product of Western culture,
not Indian civilization
that goes back thousands of years,
and yet there was some driving attraction
that Oppenheimer held for the "Gita."
SHIMKHADA: We know that Oppenheimer read the "Bhagavad Gita,"
and it is all about how the weapons were used,
how the weapons were designed or manufactured.
So that might have given him some idea
or some impetus to design this atomic bomb.
Was the atomic bomb a reinvention
of a devastating ancient technology?
There are some who certainly believe it to be true.
But there's another legendary creation
whose purpose is not to destroy worlds
but rather to create true wonders.
It's a mystical elixir known as the philosopher's stone.
SHATNER: On the grounds of this rural farmhouse
is an apple tree that represents
a legendary story in the history of science.
It is said that here, in 1666,
a young Isaac Newton was pondering
the mysteries of the universe,
when he saw an apple fall straight down from the tree.
In a flash of inspiration, the great scientist and inventor
formulated a theory that would change the world,
known as the law of gravity.
Isaac Newton was one of the foremost
individuals in the so-called Scientific Revolution.
He had his hand in everything.
He co-invented calculus.
He formulated laws of motion.
He did important optical experiments,
which explained the nature of light.
He was the first to really theorize
and mathematize gravity.
Newton was a genius.
But in addition to that, there is a Newton
that most people don't know,
which is that he was also an alchemist.
SHATNER: Sir Isaac Newton's towering intellect
helped lay the foundation for modern science.
But many are surprised to learn that he was also obsessed
with a mystical practice that stretches back
over 4,000 years to ancient Egypt
called alchemy.
The ancient practice of alchemy
is really an art of transformation.
Taking substances apart,
breaking them down to their essences,
and then recombining those essences
in the hope of getting something that is
more pure, more useful.
It does sound like magic, but it's actually
the precursor to modern chemistry.
THOMPSON: The idea is that it's sort of
science working in a framework of magic.
These are basically scientists trying to figure out
how to change one thing into another.
On the one hand, it's sort of a scientific endeavor.
On the other hand, it's a mystical endeavor.
KAKU: Today, when we look back at alchemists,
we laugh, we realize
there's so much black arts involved with that.
But realize that, for its time, it was legitimate.
You could do chemical reactions and mix potions
and sometimes come up with interesting results.
Isaac Newton was fascinated by alchemy
because alchemy, back then, was fair game.
It was a tremendous mystery.
SHATNER: Alchemists sought to unlock
the mysteries of the physical world.
And by the seventh century,
references to a legendary substance
began appearing throughout alchemical texts.
It was a concoction so shrouded in secrecy,
it was often represented by symbols
and in coded language.
Every master alchemist, including Sir Isaac Newton,
yearned to crack the code to creating what is called
the philosopher's stone.
The first use of the term "philosopher's stone"
stretches back to Arabic alchemy.
Really... Probably around the seventh century
of the Common Era.
And then it becomes commonplace
in both medieval alchemy and early modern alchemy.
The philosopher's stone is really
the most important substance in alchemical literature.
The philosopher's stone was a substance
that alchemists believe would give you the ability
to transmute base metals,
like lead or tin, into gold or silver.
And Isaac Newton was interested in the process
of making the philosopher's stone.
SHATNER: Sir Isaac Newton was trying to create something capable
of transforming a worthless metal into gold or silver.
And while the philosopher's stone
sounds like the name of a magical rock,
according to most alchemical texts,
this enigmatic substance has more in common with fairy dust.
Philosopher's stone kind of evokes, like,
a stone, a precious stone.
But in actuality, usually the philosopher's stone
appears in writings as types of powders
or elixirs that can be added in the course of the experiment.
Theoretically, if you can create the philosopher's stone,
if you can go through all the steps and stages correctly,
once you have the philosopher's stone in your hand--
and again, not a stone, but a powder--
you can actually change a base metal into gold.
THOMPSON: The philosopher's stone is just viewed as the ultimate element.
So, to achieve the philosopher's stone is sort of
unlocking the secrets of the universe
and being able to control the secrets of the universe.
And so, we can look at concepts like the philosopher's stone now
and say, "Oh, this is just-just, you know, a legendary thing."
And yet, we know Sir Isaac Newton
was absolutely fascinated in the quest
for the philosopher's stone.
DRAGO: Newton was fascinated by the idea that
there could be transformative substance out there
that can change one thing to another.
We can see through Newton's manuscripts that he devotes
an enormous part of his life and his research
to the making of the philosopher's stone.
SHATNER: On his quest to invent the philosopher's stone,
Sir Isaac Newton studied the works
of the great alchemists in history
and pored over strange texts
said to reveal its secret recipe.
KLEIN: One of Newton's favorite individuals
for studying alchemy was an English alchemist
in the late Middle Ages named George Ripley.
One of my favorite alchemical documents
at the Huntington is our Ripley Scroll.
It's a 16th century ten-foot-long scroll,
and it tells the story of how to make the philosopher's stone.
And it just has the most wild imagery you've ever seen.
There's this bleeding serpent-like toad.
There's a bird with the head of a human being.
Green lions and things like that.
So, this imagery isn't just there
in order to be interesting to look at.
It holds keys to what alchemists were doing in the laboratory.
SHATNER: Was Isaac Newton able to decode the secrets
of the Ripley Scroll
and ultimately create the philosopher's stone?
The answer's unclear.
Many of the great thinker's personal manuscripts
were destroyed after a fire broke out in his laboratory.
But in 2016, a rare Newton document
on the philosopher's stone was unearthed
that may hold some clues to how successful the genius was
at changing metal to gold.
The manuscript that we have at the Science History Institute
is, uh, an alchemical recipe for the making of sophic mercury.
It's part of the process for making the philosopher's stone.
Now, we don't have any record of Isaac Newton
actually transmuting lead to gold,
but did he make the philosopher's stone?
That's an open question.
KLEIN: We don't know exactly if Newton thought he had
discovered the philosopher's stone.
This manuscript helps us understand that Newton believed
it's entirely possible.
But no, I think it remains to be revealed.
Did Sir Isaac Newton actually create the philosopher's stone,
a substance that could
miraculously turn lead into gold?
(chuckles)
It's a tantalizing thought
and a possibility
when you consider evidence of what some believe
is ancient alchemy
that's standing right in front of us.
SHATNER: Built in 1889 as an homage
to the industrial strength of France,
this striking achievement in metalworks
has held its iconic stance
in the City of Light for nearly 150 years.
Once the tallest structure in the world,
the Eiffel Tower has endured, in part,
due to a fresh coat of paint that's applied every seven years
to protect the structure from rust and corrosion.
And 4,000 miles away in India,
on the southern fringe of New Delhi,
stands another tall iron monument.
But this soaring column
presents one of the greatest mysteries in ancient metallurgy.
It's called the iron pillar of Delhi.
COLLINS: The iron pillar of Delhi is located
within a religious complex
that was originally constructed
as a Hindu temple to the god Vishnu.
It's obviously made of iron,
but it has not corroded in any way,
and yet it has stood in its current position
for at least 800 years, and before that,
elsewhere for another several hundred years.
Where it had originally stood
in the Madre Pradesh region of India,
it would almost seem as if a new technique was invented
to preserve it from corrosion for thousands of years.
And so far, it has quite literally done that job.
So what is the secret?
Why has this iron not corroded in a way
which iron normally does?
So, this would seem to be a technology
that was completely lost, because if it wasn't lost,
we'd have been using it today.
SHATNER: So how did ancient people invent iron that doesn't rust?
India's humid climate is supposed to accelerate
the process of corrosion.
And the iron pillar's cryptic ancient origins
only make this miraculous invention
even more confounding.
What we have here is a pillar
that was originally created to be special.
It was put there in pride of place,
very close to this huge minaret tower.
The minaret tower is 238 feet tall,
and the iron pillar
is 23 feet, eight inches,
which is exactly one-tenth of the tower,
showing that there is some kind of relationship between the two.
But what it is remains a true mystery.
We really do not know who this
iron pillar belongs to or who built it.
There are inscriptions on the pillar itself.
It is attributed to King Chandragupta,
and he ruled around fourth to fifth century CE,
but there is also controversy about that name
because there is only a name "Chandra" on the pillar.
It does not say "Chandragupta."
So, it could also mean another king
called Rama-chandra, which is a legendary king.
And if it is true, then that goes back
to some 12,000 BCE.
SHATNER: The true age of the iron pillar is a matter of debate.
But if it really does date back to 12,000 BC,
that would mean it was forged 10,000 years
before iron was even discovered.
And while many believe the structure's more likely
1,600 years old,
what can explain the lack of corrosion and rust?
How was this achieved?
In 2003,
scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology
performed an analysis on the iron pillar
in an attempt to find some answers.
SHIMKHADA: Scientists have analyzed all the elements
that went into building this iron pillar.
They found it is 98% iron and one part is phosphorus.
That has produced what they call "misawite."
And the misawite is a kind of film
that is coated the pillar,
that is what protects from corrosion
and rust.
The Delhi iron pillar
is the evidence of lost technology.
No one has been able to replicate the same iron pillar.
MOHAN: Rust slowly starts eating into iron,
and it can destroy anything.
This is how iron and moisture are normally supposed to behave,
but the iron pillar of India
does something very, very different.
When moisture comes into contact with the iron pillar,
it basically converts that moisture
into a very unique compound, forming a protective coating,
making it even more resistant to rusting.
SHATNER: The remarkable theory
that the ancient column creates its own protective layer
to shield it from the elements begs the question:
How did the ancient inventors do it?
SHIMKHADA: Iron is a major
element for bridges and buildings.
And eventually, you know, they catch a corrosion,
and they rust, and eventually they collapse.
And we have seen a lot of examples,
you know, around the world.
The builders who built the iron pillar
did not leave the knowledge behind,
other than the example, which is still standing,
but it has not been replicated by anyone else.
The builder knew the secret formula
to make it corrosion-free,
but the knowledge is lost forever.
It's fascinating to think about
where modern metallurgy might be today
if the true secrets of the iron pillar
had not disappeared from history.
And the same can be said for another ancient invention
created by a man so powerful,
he was called "The King of Poison."
SHATNER: For over 6,500 years,
humans have used a combination of minerals,
vegetables and herbs
to concoct toxic potions we know as poison.
History is filled with stories of how poison was used
to change the course of events
for the likes of emperors, queens and philosophers.
But perhaps most intriguing
is a remarkable invention created in the first century BC
by a ruler named Mithridates the Great,
also known as "The Poison King."
Mithridates was the king of poison in numerous ways.
And one of them being,
he was truly using poison as-as a tool of war.
But he was said to have come up with either a powder or a pill
that he took every day
that would make you immune to poison,
the universal antidote
that would keep you so that you couldn't die from poison.
COLLINS: The story goes that when he was young,
Mithridates found out or realized
that his mother had killed his own father
by poisoning him.
And knowing that he was in line for the throne,
he started to realize
that his mother was also trying to poison him.
He realized this because, as he was having his meals,
he would feel incredibly sick afterwards.
And he thought, almost certainly correctly,
that she was putting small amounts of poison in his food.
So, he went into hiding,
and he started working with poisons and toxins.
And Mithridates, over a period of years,
was able to create this antidote,
a cure-all for everything.
And this is something that Mithridates is famous for,
even referred to as "The Poison King" for this reason.
SHATNER: Mithridates' invention of a universal antidote
to all poisons-- known as "mithridate"--
made him a legend of the ancient world.
But is it possible
that such a miraculous invention really worked?
Some say the most compelling evidence can be found
by examining this great king's own death.
TOTELIN: King Mithridates was vanquished
by the Romans at the end of three bloody wars.
And he did what most kings who had been vanquished did,
and that was to kill himself, to die by suicide.
So, he decided to kill himself by taking a poison.
But he couldn't die because he had become immune.
And the idea is that he was immune
to the most poisonous of poisons
because he had taken an antidote for a very long time.
So instead, he asked to be killed by the sword.
So, the story of the death is actually the best proof
that his antidote worked.
SHATNER: Is it possible
that King Mithridates invented a universal antidote
capable of counteracting any poison?
And if so, why hasn't anyone
been able to duplicate his formula?
King Mithridates' formula was sought after,
and the Romans went to great length
to get the formula
and then translate it into Latin.
And then they developed all sorts of formulas
that were based on the formula of Mithridates.
One recipe is very short.
It's four ingredients.
And then we have another recipe has around 50 ingredients.
But we have many different mithridatic antidotes
in our sources.
They're always different, the ingredients,
but they have things in common.
Which one is the real antidote? We don't know.
I like to call it "a pharmacological ghost,"
because it's always-- you know, it's around.
We know it's there, but we can't quite capture it.
THOMPSON: These legends about Mithridates
and his universal antidote traveled through history.
Poisonings continued to be very popular
throughout the Roman Empire, throughout medieval Europe,
even throughout the Renaissance.
So, people were always looking for that universal antidote.
Uh, we don't know if anyone has ever found it.
SHATNER: The Poison King's miraculous invention
is lost to history,
but if we ever do unlock this secret recipe
to neutralize any poison,
it would not only save countless lives,
it could also change modern medicine as we know it.
I think an antidote is certainly an area
where mystery and medicine certainly collide.
This quest for an antidote or a universal medicine,
it certainly says something interesting about humanity
and our desire to find, uh, cure-alls
and things that will improve life
and make our existence better.
SHATNER: The year 2000.
Archaeologists unearth the mummified remains
of a Roman noblewoman and her 18-year-old son.
There on the woman's hand is a 2,000-year-old ring
with a remarkably lifelike portrait
of her beloved son.
GEIGER: This very unique ring, it's set in gold,
and it's got a crystal.
It's a cabochon crystal, which means that
instead of being faceted like you might see
with a gemstone, it's been polished smooth.
And it has inside a likeness of her son
that is remarkably like a modern hologram.
And it really gives that feeling that this ring is-is magic.
SHATNER: Modern holograms are advanced
three-dimensional images created by projecting light,
often by laser beams.
Rudimentary hologram technology wasn't invented
until 1948 by the Hungarian physicist Dennis Gabor.
So how was this holographic ring created
almost 2,000 years ago?
THOMPSON: It's often called a "hologram ring."
It's not a hologram, of course, but it follows the same idea
that you're actually seeing a 3D image.
Crystals refract light in interesting ways,
and the artisanship behind this was really fabulous,
to be able to put a reflective face in the back.
This is what gives it its kind of eerie 3D effect.
And this is the only example of this that we currently have.
GEIGER: The ring certainly leads you to wonder:
Was this just one technology, one person,
and then it was lost?
Someone could probably try to duplicate it today.
But maybe this was this piece of technology from someone
who was very special in their art
and who-who's gone.
SHATNER: We may never know who created the holographic ring
or how exactly they created this intricate relic,
but its mere existence is proof
that the inventors of the ancient world
were capable of far more than we give them credit for.
THOMPSON: It's always a fascinating moment
in archeology when we realize
how advanced some of the techniques
and the knowledge were from some of these ancient civilizations.
I think a big part of the puzzle is,
we understand where we get our knowledge from,
but we look back at some of these amazing inventions,
these displays of knowledge,
and we have a hard time imagining,
before science, before universities:
How did these societies build all of this body of knowledge?
KAKU: When you think of modern technology, we say to ourselves,
"Yeah, we invented that.
"Yeah, we're the ones who pioneered
this breakthrough in technology."
And then we realized there were antecedents.
There were other versions of this very same technology
that the ancients were toying with.
When you begin to understand the technology of the ancients,
begin to realize the ancients had their own wisdom,
a wisdom that is parallel to the wisdom of today.
Whether it's something as monumental
as a death ray or an atomic bomb,
or as mystical as an elixir or secret antidote,
history is filled with fascinating stories
of ancient inventions
that challenge our notion of human innovation.
Could these incredible technologies
really have been achieved hundreds
or even thousands of years ago?
It's an intriguing possibility
that, for now, will remain...
unexplained.
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