What is Digg?98 Comments
- DiggsOnlyNeoCon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4611. Larry King
- RossEwidge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+40"The spiral groove, it turns out, is actually composed of tiny hieroglyphics that tell the incredible story of spaceships from some distant world that crash-landed in the mountains. The ships were piloted by people who called themselves the Dropa, and the remains of whose descendents, possibly, were found in the cave."
Very credible sources were consulted for this article. - nixonrichard, on 10/12/2007, -4/+37They are all sex toys. Mystery solved.
- DeathBorn, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18They didn't mention the Stargate, because they figured it out already! It's a government conspiracy!
- TKDWILSON, on 10/12/2007, -8/+23""""""Our dating methods are completely inaccurate, and that stone, coal and fossils form much more rapidly than we now estimate."""""""
You realize this is the exact belief that Creationists hold. If our dating methods are completely inaccurate, we have no way using science to tell how old the earth is, how old man is, or anything else.
Yeah, because I said "Creationism" and didn't say something negative, I know I am going to get dugg down.
Eric Wilson - saleem, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15the only one im already familiar with is the Dropa stones. Its complete fabrication that they were "translated" and told that story. How were they translated? Rosetta Stone and that story had 3 parallel stories and we already understood 2 of them. This was just characters in a spiral, which were possibly a COMPLETE hoax.
- syncomm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14However, the Antikythera Mechanism is the "real thing" and has been the subject of much scientific research.
- gabraham, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13"The Baghdad Battery
Today batteries can be found in any grocery, drug, convenience and department store you come across. Well, here's a battery that's 2,000 years old! Known as the Baghdad Battery, this curiosity was found in the ruins of a Parthian village believed to date back to between 248 B.C. and 226 A.D. The device consists of a 5-1/2-inch high clay vessel inside of which was a copper cylinder held in place by asphalt, and inside of that was an oxidized iron rod. Experts who examined it concluded that the device needed only to be filled with an acid or alkaline liquid to produce an electric charge. It is believed that this ancient battery might have been used for electroplating objects with gold. If so, how was this technology lost... and the battery not rediscovered for another 1,800 years?"
Patent law. - Supernova36, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Well the first one is quite obviously a cricket ball.. Those South Africans and their cricket.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10BEWARE young Jedi.
The Dropa Stones look like a hoax: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropa
Same for the South African Spheres: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/mom/spheres.html
In fact, a little Google-ing tore this article to shreds. Shame on you About.com.
I have nothing against a little "what if", but presenting these artifacts without mentioning the ENORMOUS controversy surrounding each of them strikes me as irresponsible. - syncomm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9The "Dropa Stones" are a complete hoax. No evidence exists for them other than several old pictures which show neither groves nor match the size of the disks in the original report.
- wyrdness, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I've only read as far as the first one but, even if the rock itself is 2.8 billion years old, that doesn't give us any clue as to how old the scratches on it are. I could take a 2.8 billion year old rock and scratch it myself.
- MightyMuffin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7A quick search in Google solves nearly all of these "great mysteries". Here are some answers for you : )
The South African Grooved Sphere:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/mom/spheres.html
The Dropa Stone Discs:
http://www.crystalinks.com/dropa.html
The Ica Stones of Peru:
http://www.crystalinks.com/icastones.html
Antikythera mechanism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
Baghdad Battery:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery
The Coso Artifact:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/coso.html
Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica:
http://web.ku.edu/~hoopes/balls/errors.htm - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Great stuff. That's why I come onto Digg. Learn interesting new things each day (well not EVERY day).
- KinGvsKinG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5is it me or is this art/sculptures more appealing than most of the crap that's for sale now-a-days?
- Jovinian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@ElusiveByte
the Antikythera Mechanism is probably the best authenticated of all the objects mentioned. Go look on Wikipedia, and check out the numerous links to reputable, peer reviewed journals and other publications. - madpoet_one, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The Coso Artifact has never been dated. The age given is based on the opinion of an anonymous geologist. There is more info at your friendly neighborhood wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coso_artifact. They also have a very cool category at Wikipedia about this same subject http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Out-of-place_artifacts
- geodescent, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4How come I never heard of these before?
- nicroma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Amazing, the world is an incredible place.
- macaddct1984, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4For the wikipediaphiles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_battery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coso_artifact
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ica_stones
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klerksdorp_Spheres
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_spheres_of_Costa_Rica - AXNJAXN, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I read that "Oprah", which I took to mean "Oprah is an alien from a distant world"
It still made sense. - bakagaigin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It's because a lot of the time, things like this are actually proven to be hoaxes. An example that comes to mind is the "Jesus Box" that supposedly held the bones of Jesus's brother, James. Although these are immediatly more puzzling, I must say.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/06/18/jesus.box/ - deflective, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6because these kind of things are almost always discredited as hoaxes. when that happens anybody who has been taking it seriously looses credibility. usually the only people who take them seriously aren't worried about personal credibility.
the internet is a great medium to make sure that the odd stories like this that actually have merit will eventually catch the attention of more prominent authorities. - doncarajo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Nice
- rasty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I would indeed be careful about believing in the Dropa stuff... see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropa_stones
(and by consequence, careful about believing anything in TFA!) - davidlow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I solved part of the mystery of the Antikythera Mechanism:
1. "A perplexing artifact was recovered by sponge-divers from a shipwreck..."
2. "It is still unknown ... how the technology was lost."
I propose that the technology was lost because the ship sank. - iPirate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Or.... another shining example of Digg's success. New users join year after year and digg up things that they have never seen on Digg before. QQ nub.
- tnsimonson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Almost all of these items are objects that I left behind to prove that my time machine actually works. If you don't believe me check the Dropa Stones. You'll find that the phonograph-like markings are actually the entire Led Zeppelin library (minus Jimmy Page's guitar solo from "Dazed and Confused" which just took up too much rock).
- opiniastrous, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I've heard of the Baghdad battery before (I think it was in one of my high school science textbooks) so I'm not too skeptical about that one, and having done a little Wiki background check on the rest of these, the Antikythera mechanism and the Stone spheres of Costa Rica appear pretty legit (the dugg article misses out a lot of info). I could also believe that fossils shaped like human hands could be created, even without an actual human hand...
The others though, have got to be total bull$#!7.
@ElusiveByte - The quote in the article was "Writing on the case INDICATED that it was made in 80 B.C." It didn't claim that there was writing on the Antikythera mechanism that said something like "Made in Ancient Greece, 80 B.C" That reminds me of the story of a coin purportedly from 3 B.C (or something like that) that someone eventually clicked to the fact it must have been a hoax because if you make something before the birth of Christ, how the @#$^ are you going to know how many years there are to go before he's born?! - Koch, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5The reason why people have never heard of this kind of stuff before is because it does not fit in with our view of history, thus most "experts" and media bodies simply ignore it. As simple as that. Many claim hoaxes of them just to discredit them. The mainstream shuns archaeologists who deal with such artifacts.
There are a few archaeologists who embrace the out-of-place artifacts, and try and make sense of them. One such that'd I'd recommend is http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Mens-Secrets-Tantalising-Hints/dp/1418425559
It may seem pretty crazy, but it opens your mind and gets you thinking with all the evidence provided.
Never stop asking questions. - jake8689, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2its the Goa'uld quick run to the stargate
- WraTH017, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Indeed they should.
The article does not claim that the stones are billions of years old. It simply states that their purpose is puzzling. - Stevethegreat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Why can't people just say "WE DON'T KNOW"? While those are interesting pieces, giving outrageous explanations for their existance only harms the cause, that's how belief works not science, off my mind.
- NamelessCoward, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@ TKDWILSON
sorry, your prophecy inaccurate (for now). - CzechRebel, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7For some reason, the mainstream media doesn’t cover these things very much. The academics ignore them. Society cast people who are interested in such things as “kooks.” So, why do you think that you never heard of them before?
- bremmi, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Interesting reading but the article has about 0 scientific credibility. No digg.
- S1L3NTC, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Sometimes it's nice to have something challenge long standing beliefs and offer a new perspective on our past.
Some of the article definitely favors opinion over fact.
(Takes deep breath in preparation for flame-fest)
However, I believe it is quite possible that time travelers from the future got stuck in the past, there were advanced civilizations that existed prior to our perceived history, or extraterrestrials and their technology (if not spin offs) found their way to our planet somehow.
I may not be able to prove any this, but at the same time no one can definitively disprove it either. - r2debo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The end of the article suggests that maybe our dating methods are wrong. What?
- Orat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"In 1912, employees at an electric plant broke apart a large chunk of coal out of which fell an iron pot!"
"In any case, these examples - and there are many more - should prompt any curious and open-minded scientist to reexamine and rethink the true history of life on earth"
Yes, someone's early 20th century prank should cause our best and brightest scientific minds to rethink the true history of the planet. - sandkiller, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2LOL! Very good remark! :D
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2its only christianity as far as i'm aware that belives the world is around 6000 years old.
we muslims don't believe that and there is no mention how old the earth is in the Quran. - banjom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2From wikipedia:
Neil Steede, an archaeologist who was investigating the Ica stones for The Mysterious Origins of Man (a film attempting to make the case humans existed far earlier than previously thought), found no patina on the engravings although the rocks had patina on them, suggesting that the engravings are indeed younger than the rocks. - cheeseron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wait, since when has about.com been an accurate resource for this stuff?
- pbgswd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2while there are indications of some earlier civilizations than are recorded, there are likely simpler and more reasonable explanations than suggestions of extremely early or highly advanced peoples. This does not discount that some devices such as the Bhagdad battery were real products of alchemy of the time and were used by craftspeople of the time.
- jron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2under the category of paranormal phenomena, one should obviously read with skepticism. mixing fact with bogus data forces readers to write off every object detailed. this is unfortunate considering many of these objects are very real and quite amazing even after separating the facts from the fiction. take a look at the antikythera mechanism, recently reverse engineered and understood- this thing is two thousand years old! more importantly, the signs of the zodiac, found on this device, have history dating back much much further. why was the zodiac so important to many ancient advanced civilizations and just how advanced were these civilizations? many would find it interesting that much of the christian bible is a metaphor for the zodiac and sun worship (before constantine). This begs the question, just how advanced are we? at least they knew what they were worshiping...
- reticulate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Ahh, the influence of Eric Von Daniken isn't dead yet.
Despite the fact that he lied, cheated and prefabricated evidence to prove we are the spawn of/were visited by some philanthropic extraterrestrials.
And that most of the artifacts are not particularly useful in modern times - but were probably so the thousands of years ago they were formed, unless there's a suggestion here that ancient extraterrestrials flew amongst the stars using clay batteries and mechanically geared navigation devices that only actually work on Earth because they're based on the position of stars.
Or, I suppose one could suggest that we saw their technology, and tried to copy it. Fair enough, but how did we figure out how they work, and if we were taught why didn't our erstwhile educations see fit to provide the manufacturing tools to produce something closer to the technology of a spacefaring civilization? So they showed us how it worked, then decided not to let us build it using tools more appropriate for our or a later time, am I right?
Here's a thought: Ancient civilisations were more advanced than we thought back in the Victorian Era.
Congratulations, welcome to Modern Archeology. We know that already. Most, if not all, of these 'mysteries' have been since cleared up or at least reasonable explanations provided within the context of an entirely human, earth-bound civilization. Yes, we came up with some pretty nifty things back in the day, and yes, to some they might seem evidence of something else. Unfortunately, in the face of reality, most of these musings come to nothing.
That doesn't stop people trying to sell you books about them, obviously. - drake546, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's only SOME christians that believe that. The bible doesn't give a date either. It's just people making assumptions based on the lineage information in the really really early books. Books that don't bother to mention if they skipped some relatives who were really boring or not well liked.
- waynetheman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1What fun (or use) is "we don't know"? Anyone who finds the artifacts sufficiently interesting is going to have SOME hypothesis in their head. Since they just don't fit in with what we know of history, most of the explanations are no more outrageous than anything anyone else would come up with. (Except for the aliens thing. That's... a bit much.)
- urbanpitch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It nearly happened with star trek, and thank GOD it didn't!
- Crucifix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I want my spark plug back!
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