Atlanteans and The pyramids

originally posted by: Byrd

originally posted by: bloodymarvelous

A chemical battery seems more likely here. Basically you just need two chemical compounds that can exchange a Hydrogen atom, and then an electrolyte between them.

You run into the same problem.... you need a lot of insulated wiring to set one up. Miles of it. And it needs to be insulated. Then there's the problem of the solution itself, which will degrade over time and the metals (copper, I assume) which would also degrade.

The "door handles" they found in the Gatenbrink robotics project look like they could easily be made out of copper.

Copper tools didn't really become a thing until the discovery of bronze, because copper alone is too soft to make good strong tools from.

However its value as electrical wire doesn't depend on its hardness.



That said: I don't know where you're getting the whole "needs lots of wire" thing from? As long as the positive and negative end of the battery is completely separated by an electrolyte in between, that is a battery even if no wire were present at all. (However, in order to draw power from the battery, or charge it, you would need to connect a wire between the positive and negative ends. Just one is enough.)


Or not necessarily a wire. Any conductive substance will do.

Ever left a battery in something for a few years and come back to find it covered with green stuff and semi-exploded? That's what would happen.

You wouldn't want to charge to anywhere near its full capacity. The chemical properties of the substance you are using change when you charge a chemical battery.

So if there was say, a water reserve below the ground that typically ends up with a lot of acid in it, and then something between them that makes a decent electrolyte, then the two things together could work as a chemical battery.

If you read about lead-acid batteries (the kind your car uses), the principle is basically the same. That battery uses different chemicals, but they're being used in essentially the same way as limestone and some other acid would work.

I'm familiar with it. However, there's still the issues to overcome that the pyramids would be useless as batteries. You can't change the electrolyte easily or maintain the thing (replace the metals) easily, and anyway there's no insulated wiring in Egypt at that time (or indeed till modern times.)

The setup can achieve more than one goal. Since charging a chemical battery causes the chemicals themselves to change, the goal might not have been what we're thinking here.

Instead of charging it so they can use it as a power source, perhaps they charge it so they can change the chemical properties of one or both of the materials in question? Sucking electrical charge out of, or imparting electrical charge into, those underwater reservoirs could have had an effect on the fertility of the soil in the whole valley. (Due to the "I drink your milkshake" effect, as described in the movie "there will be blood".)

Ancient people were more concerned with food than with fancy electrical toys.


Suppose some noble person builds a small limestone and granite structure in their backyard, with a diode and some insulation in the right places, so that when the granite vibrates it ever so gradually charges the limestone, and the water under the soil..... And this increased the fertility of his garden, built on a flood plane.


Well, if it works, and the people want to achieve the same result on a much larger scale, then maybe later on someone decides to build a really big one.

Granite, for its part has what is called a "piezo electric" property due to having quartz in it. It generates a charge when it is placed under stress. If it is made to vibrate, for example by exposing it to sound at a frequency that it is able to resonate with, it will alternate between positive and negative charge.

True...however, the crystals aren't uniform in size or shape or material. That means you don't get much of a charge out of it at all (almost immeasureable.)

I think it depends on how much stress it is put under, and how rapidly it vibrates.

Have you ever heard of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge?

en.wikipedia.org...(1940)

If an object finds itself in the right resonance, even something as simple as wind can cause quite a lot of vibration response.

Of course we don't see the pyramid doing anything like that bridge did today, so either they would have to have been able to turn it on or off, or the structure would have to have lost its attunement after a while.

... but the granite was in direct contact with the limestone,.... so I think we're still missing something.

That it's completely unworkable?

I wouldn't go that far.

If they had a diode, then one possibility would be to connect the positive or negative charges generated by the vibrating granite to a grounding wire, but leave the other charge ungrounded. Then the ungrounded charge would go into the limestone.

So like if you ground the positive charge, then the limestone gets any negative charge, but all the positive charge is being lost, by being conducted away to some kind of "grounding wire". Over time, the limestone would build a negative charge, causing the ground water on the other side of the electrolyte to build up a positive charge.

All that aside, if the pyramid were being used as part of a battery, and sound was being used to charge it, then .... well,... we're not exactly talking about the kind of power plant that can power a city or anything like that here.

Exactly. Plus it was miles from anyplace that could have used electricity. You don't put electricity in a graveyard... you put it in the King's house and in the Nobles' houses.

More likely perhaps a way to change the properties of the surrounding farm lands. Something useful in itself. Something that could be invented on a small scale, and then built on a large scale. Like if they saw a notable change in a garden that used a sonically charged battery to affect the alkali metals in the ground or something.

Maybe the land around the NIle wasn't always as fertile as we know it to be today?

Giza's on a plateau. In the desert. In the middle of a huge cemetery. If they were doing things to improve the crops, wouldn't it make sense to place it near the crops and near the biggest farms (which would be in the swampy delta)?

A common hypothesis among "very ancient" origin theories, is that at some time long ago in the past, Giza was not a desert, nor a huge cemetery, and the Nile perhaps took a different route and came much closer to Giza.

The erosion patterns on the back side of the sphinx suggest heavy rainfall. If the Nile used to come closer to Giza that would explain the water causeways, and huge fixation with water that the pharaohs had (such as burying boats in chambers near to it, which are known to come from the time of pharaohs.)

I think I should explain why using a lightning rod would solve the problem of the granite and limestone being in contact:

If the charge that is being removed is not insulated from the limestone, but it has an EVEN MORE free path to the lightning rod, then it's going to go down the path of least resistance, even if there are two paths with not a lot of resistance.

So if the positive charge can go into either the limestone OR the more free path to the lighting rod, but the negative charge has only has the limestone as an option, then gradually an increasing amount of negative charge is going to build up in the limestone (because the negative has nowhere else to go, but the positive does have somewhere else to go).

This also has the fortunate effect of preventing over charging, because as a charge gets stronger, it overcomes resistance better. Eventually both paths would have the same amount of current going through them.

a reply to: bloodymarvelous


The Power plant theory seems to gain a lot of traction with this guy. Which might work, with the advanced different tech, of the advanced civilization during the last ice age. Which ended with a worldwide deluge, when the Laurentian Ice shelf melted. Bear with..... the natural normal state of the Earth is that of a full blown Glaciation, therefore, could it be entirely possible that this planet has another occupant, one that is more in tune with the 'Normal" climatic state of this Earth, and we have just enjoyed the sweet spot of the Interglacial to ascend to a reasonable state of civilization which couldn't have happened in a full blown Ice situation. These hot spots usually last around twelve thousand years, our basic nature not to put to fine a point on it is to kill each other off in every increasing numbers as the state of our civilization has progressed. Looking at the highly advanced tech which created some of the polygonal walls, it doesn't look like it was us although we might have been laborers, as by rights if it was built by us ,we should still be able to do it today.
So the other inhabitants of Earth where are they now? probably down in Antarctica enjoying the Normal conditions, that their particular race has has evolved for. While us forest dwellers argue about resources, thinking that these warm conditions are going to last forever.?

a reply to: bloodymarvelous


The Power plant theory seems to gain a lot of traction with this guy. Which might work, with the advanced different tech, of the advanced civilization during the last ice age. Which ended with a worldwide deluge, when the Laurentian Ice shelf melted. Bear with..... the natural normal state of the Earth is that of a full blown Glaciation, therefore, could it be entirely possible that this planet has another occupant, one that is more in tune with the 'Normal" climatic state of this Earth, and we have just enjoyed the sweet spot of the Interglacial to ascend to a reasonable state of civilization which couldn't have happened in a full blown Ice situation. These hot spots usually last around twelve thousand years, our basic nature not to put to fine a point on it is to kill each other off in every increasing numbers as the state of our civilization has progressed. Looking at the highly advanced tech which created some of the polygonal walls, it doesn't look like it was us although we might have been laborers, as by rights if it was built by us ,we should still be able to do it today.
So the other inhabitants of Earth where are they now? probably down in Antarctica enjoying the Normal conditions, that their particular race has has evolved for. While us forest dwellers argue about resources, thinking that these warm conditions are going to last forever.?

originally posted by: bloodymarvelous
The "door handles" they found in the Gatenbrink robotics project look like they could easily be made out of copper.

Copper tools didn't really become a thing until the discovery of bronze, because copper alone is too soft to make good strong tools from.

Their refining ability wasn't that good, actually, and the near copper deposits also have arsenic (which will make kind of a bronze. A really bad bronze.)

However its value as electrical wire doesn't depend on its hardness.

True. In this case, you want it to be ductile. There's not much evidence that the AE's used it to make wire, however.

That said: I don't know where you're getting the whole "needs lots of wire" thing from?

Well, you don't make a battery just for practice, right? It would have to have some sort of function, even if only to light a bulb. In order to get any use out of a battery, you need wires of some sort. And the "ports" on the GP are not close together, hence you need wire from the metal plates, wire up to whatever you're driving... AND it has to be insulated wire. You need wire of a certain thickenss, but you have to be careful... the wrong thickness will affect the strength of the charge.

As long as the positive and negative end of the battery is completely separated by an electrolyte in between, that is a battery even if no wire were present at all. (However, in order to draw power from the battery, or charge it, you would need to connect a wire between the positive and negative ends. Just one is enough.)

Or not necessarily a wire. Any conductive substance will do.

Can you think of anything other than wire that will reliably conduct a current uphill and to a target?

Ever left a battery in something for a few years and come back to find it covered with green stuff and semi-exploded? That's what would happen.

You wouldn't want to charge to anywhere near its full capacity. The chemical properties of the substance you are using change when you charge a chemical battery.

They corrode even when they're at partial charge. Trust me. I've fished out lots of batteries like that.

The setup can achieve more than one goal. Since charging a chemical battery causes the chemicals themselves to change, the goal might not have been what we're thinking here.

Instead of charging it so they can use it as a power source, perhaps they charge it so they can change the chemical properties of one or both of the materials in question?

Not without an atom smasher. And to have that, you need metals that they weren't refining plus a level of purity they can't reach.

As to "turning salt water into... something..." that would leave residues. Yes, you could do it buy why spend 20 years building a pyramid, instead of doing it quickly and efficiently in jars? You could get much larger quantities and faster from a whole bunch of jars.

I think it depends on how much stress granite is put under, and how rapidly it vibrates.

Have you ever heard of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge?

en.wikipedia.org...(1940)

Crystals in granite are not free-standing (they are enclosed in a rigid structure), they are adjacent to other crystals (that vibrate at different frequencies... and it takes something like the force of the dinosaur-killing asteroid to get them to vibrate that much (the force of several billion Hiroshima bombs, or so it was said on PBS tonight.)

You can hammer or thump on it all you like and you're not going to get a charge that's measurable on an ordinary oscilloscope.

Of course we don't see the pyramid doing anything like that bridge did today, so either they would have to have been able to turn it on or off, or the structure would have to have lost its attunement after a while.

And again, why spend 20 years building something to "resonate" when they could have built millions of them in the same time and put them everywhere they were needed?

So like if you ground the positive charge, then the limestone gets any negative charge, but all the positive charge is being lost, by being conducted away to some kind of "grounding wire". Over time, the limestone would build a negative charge, causing the ground water on the other side of the electrolyte to build up a positive charge.

Not to any great degree. The limestone was in contact with marble and would leak the charge there and that would leak the charge to the atmosphere.

Try making a "static electricity" balloon... rub it on your sleeve, stick it to a wall, see how long it stays. Or put it on a marble piece and see how long it stays. You'll find your charge leaks off.

What's needed is insulation that's also air tight. And in the mean time, you'd have the corrosion from the battery stuff inside the GP and traces of insulation and wires all around.

And again, where's the sense in building something that's almost impossible to get to and to maintain when you could build millions of them in the same time and set them in a temple (or something) and have them accessible for maintenance and repair instantly and for thousands of years?

A common hypothesis among "very ancient" origin theories, is that at some time long ago in the past, Giza was not a desert, nor a huge cemetery, and the Nile perhaps took a different route and came much closer to Giza.

40,000 years ago, yes. We've got a pretty decent timeline. Cultures at that time were very primitive, however.

The erosion patterns on the back side of the sphinx suggest heavy rainfall.

Schoch has backed off that after his geologist peers pointed out the same erosion on other parts of the plateau. He was eager to prove the idea of Hancock and didn't bother to examine the area well.

If the Nile used to come closer to Giza that would explain the water causeways,

Those were for material transport. The garbage at the site turned up bills of lading and so forth.

and huge fixation with water that the pharaohs had (such as burying boats in chambers near to it, which are known to come from the time of pharaohs.)

Those were solar barges and were intended to sail through the undergournd with the deities and fight off Apep. There's a number of references to them.

originally posted by: bloodymarvelous
I think I should explain why using a lightning rod would solve the problem of the granite and limestone being in contact:

Actually, it doesn't.
The chamber of the battery either needs to be a nonconductive material (which might fit for granite) OR a conductive material surrounded by a non-porous insulator. In both cases they need to not be porous, otherwise it won't work.

The chamber (in spite of what legend says) is not airtight though it's almost airtight. You'd have plenty of leakage over time (a jar would be better, honestly.)

And if they had that much technology, why don't we see them gold-plating and silver-plating things (a technique that was extremely popular once they learned how to do it)?

here is the sealed end of one of the queens chamber shafts.

above is the front of the tura limestone with copper hooks, down are the BEND hook's endings, seen from behind.





picture of the Dixon Relics, found down at the shafts mouth.

notice that the ancient copper hook of the Dixon relics fits perfectly into the bend ends of the Tura limestone hook.

only missing is the wooden handle of that hooks to show the obvious function.
These were handles to pull the Tura limesone blocks to SEAL the shafts from the outside from dirt, dead animals etc.




Here a picture of the ancient markings found at the sealed 'chamber' behind the 'Gantenbrink door'.
These are actually NUMBERS, showing the exact length of the shafts in egytian cubits.



So this is, again, only a part of the internal construction process. No need for a speculative, exotic ' Power plant theory' which doesn't work anyway in a pyramid. At all. Just another 'theory' to distract people from reality of science.

originally posted by: Byrd

originally posted by: bloodymarvelous

I think I should explain why using a lightning rod would solve the problem of the granite and limestone being in contact:

Actually, it doesn't.

The chamber of the battery either needs to be a nonconductive material (which might fit for granite) OR a conductive material surrounded by a non-porous insulator. In both cases they need to not be porous, otherwise it won't work.



The chamber (in spite of what legend says) is not airtight though it's almost airtight. You'd have plenty of leakage over time (a jar would be better, honestly.)

You can build a working battery using pennies, vinegar and salt. No insulator visible in the process (unless you mean the coin insulating the vinegar and salt portions from each other.)

www.exploratorium.edu...

But there are other ways. If you have access to zinc as well as copper, you can use a lemon or a potato.

en.wikipedia.org...

The non porous thing is probably for a specific chemical option, and probably because part of it wants to turn gaseous during the reaction (making it necessary to prevent the gas from escaping) . But I don't know which type of battery you are thinking of.

And if they had that much technology, why don't we see them gold-plating and silver-plating things (a technique that was extremely popular once they learned how to do it)?

Gold plating doesn't necessarily become obvious just because you've figured out how to power the process.

It's also possible that neither group who possessed the knowledge of batteries really understood electricity beyond just the one application they had found for it.

The word electricity comes from a Greek word for Amber, because they experienced static shock from exciting amber. They didn't then go on to begin using amber to electroplate stuff.

You don't automatically understand the whole phenomenon just because you've experienced a single effect.

originally posted by: anti72


here is the sealed end of one of the queens chamber shafts.

above is the front of the tura limestone with copper hooks, down are the BEND hook's endings, seen from behind.





picture of the Dixon Relics, found down at the shafts mouth.

notice that the ancient copper hook of the Dixon relics fits perfectly into the bend ends of the Tura limestone hook.

only missing is the wooden handle of that hooks to show the obvious function.
These were handles to pull the Tura limesone blocks to SEAL the shafts from the outside from dirt, dead animals etc.




Here a picture of the ancient markings found at the sealed 'chamber' behind the 'Gantenbrink door'.
These are actually NUMBERS, showing the exact length of the shafts in egytian cubits.



So this is, again, only a part of the internal construction process. No need for a speculative, exotic ' Power plant theory' which doesn't work anyway in a pyramid. At all. Just another 'theory' to distract people from reality of science.

You know, an alternative interpretation would be that they attached those hooks when they wanted to draw/add power to/from the device (or do some other operation upon it). Why else would the hooks be left there at the base of the shaft? Unless they planned to reattach them from time to time.

a reply to: bloodymarvelous

Do you have ANY evidence whatever that ANY egyptian pyramid used batteries inside ?
I mean ANY pyramid, in Saqqara, Giza, Meidum ( and later, eg Abusir, Intermediate..whatever)

And then, what for?

cheers

originally posted by: bloodymarvelous
You can build a working battery using pennies, vinegar and salt. No insulator visible in the process (unless you mean the coin insulating the vinegar and salt portions from each other.)

Yes, though technically the air is an insulator in this case. Vinegar and salt battery with pennies doesn't produce much of a charge and doesn't last long.

But there are other ways. If you have access to zinc as well as copper, you can use a lemon or a potato.

They didn't have zinc... but can you just imagine them hauling tons upon tons of lemons all the way into the GP and hooking each one of them up and removing all the rotten ones? You'd need to have people up and down the interior (in that tiny slippery passageway (I've been there!) every day. And night.

Gold plating doesn't necessarily become obvious just because you've figured out how to power the process.

It's also possible that neither group who possessed the knowledge of batteries really understood electricity beyond just the one application they had found for it.

...and what would that application have been?

...and where are the smaller scale applications of this technology?

a reply to: Byrd

they didnt have lemons either,
didnt reach egypt till 700AD

I mentioned the lemon and potato batteries just to point out how simple a battery can be. There's nothing special about either material. Pretty much any acid, base, and electrolyte can work if it is paired with the right other materials. Usually best if Hydrogen appears in the compound somewhere.

Try to stop thinking like a modern person. Modern people are the ones who always have to know why something works.

Ancient people were more content to learn by trial and error. If something works, they could explain it by the gods, or an exchange of magical energies, or faeries and daemons. Whatever. The explanation could be totally bogus, failing to stand up to scientific scrutiny on every level. But if the device or process worked, they would still use it.

originally posted by: anti72
a reply to: bloodymarvelous



Do you have ANY evidence whatever that ANY egyptian pyramid used batteries inside ?

I mean ANY pyramid, in Saqqara, Giza, Meidum ( and later, eg Abusir, Intermediate..whatever)



And then, what for?



cheers

That's something I hadn't considered looking into. If one giant block made pyramid was for terraforming of some kind, then probably the others would be too.


If this was a battery, the purpose would probably have been related to agriculture in some way. There's no need to build something that big to power homes.

I wonder if it had something to do with starting/stopping the flow of underground water? One of the biggest variables of farming around the Nile was the variability of how high it would flood. If you could open/close a portion of the flow, you could moderate it a bit. Open the passage when the Nile is high. Close it when the Nile is too low.

Charge the limestone (and indirectly put an opposite charge on whatever is deep underground), and maybe the thing underground becomes less/more susceptible to letting water seep through it?

a reply to: bloodymarvelous

but thats not the point. You tried to relate the battery idea to the great pyramid shafts.
thats utter nonsense.

Like the bogus 'hydrogen power plant idea' regarding the GP.
Or the infamous bogus ' Däniken Dendera lamps'.
But you didn't mean that, right..

originally posted by: bloodymarvelous
Try to stop thinking like a modern person. Modern people are the ones who always have to know why something works.

If it helps, I also have read ancient writers and what they said about science. I'm also fairly familiar with ancient Egypt and their technology.

Ancient people were more content to learn by trial and error. If something works, they could explain it by the gods, or an exchange of magical energies, or faeries and daemons. Whatever. The explanation could be totally bogus, failing to stand up to scientific scrutiny on every level. But if the device or process worked, they would still use it.

Precisely my point.

The GP was the sixth or seventh pyramid to be built in Egypt (including some reasonably small ones). If you say it's a device, they wouldn't spend 20 years building an experiment (though they would spend that time on a tomb. FWIW, ancient Egyptian men (heads of families) began work on their own tombs when they left home and established their own household. Tombs were expensive and took a long time to build (to contract the labor and get the furnishings and so forth) - so that amount of investment in a grand tomb isn't unusual.

But they're not going to waste 20 years and the resources of a kingdom on "Hey... I think this is going to..."

Therefore, there had to be previous structures that did the same thing that Khufu is enlarging on. Those would be the other pyramids, including the step pyramid of Djoser... and if you look at the structure, that one relates to the mastaba tombs of the previous dynasties (in the arrangement of shafts and rooms and offerings.)

If it's a "battery related to agriculture" then you're going to have to show how batteries (which are storage devices for electricity... they don't actually DO anything) affect plant growth. And then you will have to show why they put it at a fairly narrow part of the Nile and not near the big grain growing areas (and why none of the 110+ other pyramids are placed near any grain growing areas and instead are all in cemeteries in the desert areas.)

originally posted by: bloodymarvelous
I wonder if it had something to do with starting/stopping the flow of underground water? One of the biggest variables of farming around the Nile was the variability of how high it would flood. If you could open/close a portion of the flow, you could moderate it a bit. Open the passage when the Nile is high. Close it when the Nile is too low.

Charge the limestone (and indirectly put an opposite charge on whatever is deep underground), and maybe the thing underground becomes less/more susceptible to letting water seep through it?

(sigh)
Take a look at the Nile. Now, take a look at where Giza is.

The Nile flows from the south (mountains in Africa) to the north (Mediterranean sea); not the other way around. By the time the Nile Flood gets to Giza, it's already flooded the rest of the country except for the delta. There's no dams at this area and they had no ability to put a dam on the Nile (they wouldn't have tried to because they saw it as a god.)

Their efforts at damming rivers were not particularly successful and did not involve pyramids.

originally posted by: Byrd

originally posted by: bloodymarvelous
Try to stop thinking like a modern person. Modern people are the ones who always have to know why something works.

If it helps, I also have read ancient writers and what they said about science. I'm also fairly familiar with ancient Egypt and their technology.

Ancient people were more content to learn by trial and error. If something works, they could explain it by the gods, or an exchange of magical energies, or faeries and daemons. Whatever. The explanation could be totally bogus, failing to stand up to scientific scrutiny on every level. But if the device or process worked, they would still use it.

Precisely my point.

The GP was the sixth or seventh pyramid to be built in Egypt (including some reasonably small ones). If you say it's a device, they wouldn't spend 20 years building an experiment (though they would spend that time on a tomb. FWIW, ancient Egyptian men (heads of families) began work on their own tombs when they left home and established their own household. Tombs were expensive and took a long time to build (to contract the labor and get the furnishings and so forth) - so that amount of investment in a grand tomb isn't unusual.

But they're not going to waste 20 years and the resources of a kingdom on "Hey... I think this is going to..."

Yeah. You would build one on an extremely small scale to test the concept, and then on a larger scale.

Therefore, there had to be previous structures that did the same thing that Khufu is enlarging on. Those would be the other pyramids, including the step pyramid of Djoser... and if you look at the structure, that one relates to the mastaba tombs of the previous dynasties (in the arrangement of shafts and rooms and offerings.)

I've been looking at diagrams of the other megalith pyramids and most of them appear to have the three chamber setup. They're just not spread out through the pyramid like they are with the GP. They're closer together.

But they're all located deep inside the pyramid, through long passageways.

The idea of the other pyramids being precursurs to the GP makes sense in the technological theory also, if they all functioned. The GP would have been the last generation of them, before whatever caused the building of them to stop.

If it's a "battery related to agriculture" then you're going to have to show how batteries (which are storage devices for electricity... they don't actually DO anything) affect plant growth. And then you will have to show why they put it at a fairly narrow part of the Nile and not near the big grain growing areas (and why none of the 110+ other pyramids are placed near any grain growing areas and instead are all in cemeteries in the desert areas.)

I'm going to try to explain this. Most devices don't have just one possible use.

Lets look at a lead acid battery. When it has no charge, you've got Lead Sulfate on both sides, and diluted Hydrochloric acid in the middle.

As you add charge, one side gradually becomes Lead Oxide, the other side gradually becomes just plain old Lead. And in the middle, the diluted Hydrochloric acid starts to get a lot less diluted.

So..... supposing you had lots of Lead Sulfate laying around, but you wanted some hydrochloric acid? You could build a lead acid battery, with blocks of lead sulfate on both sides and some water (or diluted Hydrochloric Acid) in the middle, and add a lot of charge, and over time you could get Hydrochloric Acid (and Lead, and Lead Oxide) .


It's possible for a person to use this setup with the ENTIRE goal of ONLY producing hydrochloric acid. Having no interest whatsoever in storing any electricity.

Maybe all they want to do is transform the chemicals?


Now back to our pyramid:

We've got a geologically significant amount of limestone here, which can serve as a reactant in a battery setup. (The marble is actually largely composed of the same material. Calcium Carbonate, except the limestone also has Dolemite, which also reacts with acids.)


If you pump it with enough charge, you may change its chemical composition while simultaneously changing the chemical composition of whatever lies deep underground. And if you later allow that charge to go back out of it, by routing it into something above ground, your limestone changes back (but whatever happened underground doesn't necessarily change back.)

This assumes they understand chemistry somewhat, but they may have known it by an esoteric means (like where they don't understand atoms having electrons and protons, but maybe they've mapped out some basic principles of chemical interaction without understanding why it all happens.)

You don't have to know everything to know anything. For that matter, they might not even have been in the iron/bronze age yet when they did it. Maybe it is 100% stone aged technology. Just very advanced stone technology.