I just discovered the Archaeological Fantasies blog, a site that warmed my PaleoBabbling heart. The author has a short series entitled, “The 10 Most Not-So-Puzzling Ancient Artifacts” in which many of you will be interested. Two caught my eye right away:
1. The so-called Saqqara plane
I’ve posted about this and other mis-identified objects elsewhere on my homepage, but it’s worth a re-do here, especially since the blog’s author also posted this picture of the Egyptian Opet procession, which features the “plane” (it’s a bird, not a plane) on the masts of sailing ships:
Here’s a close-up of one of the masts:
2. The Baghdad battery
Clever, but not evidence of alien technology.
Michael, have you ever blogged about the Temple at Abados in Egypt and the supposed inscriptions of helicopters and jets? I tend to think that its either a fake or a misinterpretation.
yes; see http://michaelsheiser.com/PaleoBabble/2010/11/ancient-planes-rockets-and-helicopters/
Well, if it can turn around on the axis, you’ll know in which direction the wind blows. Which would explain why the tail is vertical instead of horizontal.
When rowing a boat it doesn’t seem much help, but when sailing it is always good to know the direction of the wind.
Cheerz!
Perhaps the Baghdad battery is a device used in warfare such as the “jar” Gideon ordered to be broken in order confuse the enemy.
These images proof that the Egyptian do were aware of its aerodynamics, but not to use it as a plane, but perhaps as a tool to check the direction of the wind, when the sails weren’t up yet??
I’m not following – the wording is a bit awkward, so I’m not sure what you’re saying.