Did the Egyptians have electric lighting?

Wall carvings have been found in the temple of Hathor at Dendera, that are interpreted by some as electric lamps.



We all know about the ancient galvanic batteries found in Iraq; and with electricity so easy to produce today, why should we have waited until the 19th century to harness it? The images above clearly show some sort of strange contraption. With a little imagination, it looks like a closed circut running through what could be a lightbulb, fittingly held by Ra, the sun god.

Here is an alternate theory: take a look at this picture:


Look at the object on the right with two prongs and the rings around it. The whole contraption now looks rather like a Tesla coil. The strange flowery thing could be the capacitor and the snake-like thing, the spark gap streaming out to the coil.

But what use would the Ancient Egyptions have for a resonant transformer? Or perhaps the carvings are just a confusing depiction something quite pedestrian.

they weren't the only ones... paintings found on walls in underground labyrinths found world wide also beg the question "where's the soot from the torchs"... meaning without an "electric bulb" how did anyone see underground without leaving carbon on the ceiling...

all technologies are being rediscovered one by one.... next up? the use of antigravity by everyone... tap tap... lift!

Here is a pictorial of two men together each holding one, plus the ole bonus glif of saucers, planes and helicopters.

Other Views

Yeah, a bunch of people have told me that the thing couldn't be a lamp because that design would have created a large amount of ash; ash which was never found. My reply to that is: for one thing piles of ash have been found in other Egyptian buildings; and for another thing, If my laptop spewed soot on my floor I wouldn't leave it there for 3,000 years.

Originally posted by Tony Pro
Yeah, a bunch of people have told me that the thing couldn't be a lamp because that design would have created a large amount of ash; ash which was never found. My reply to that is: for one thing piles of ash have been found in other Egyptian buildings; and for another thing, If my laptop spewed soot on my floor I wouldn't leave it there for 3,000 years.

it's not the ash, rather the lack of soot on the ceiling that's in question... unless of course they scrubbed the ceiling by torch light.... hmmm seems a bit anti-productive...

What you are thinking of are called Djed Columns..
Please Check out Technology of the Gods, The incredible Sciences of the Ancients.
Written by David Hatcher Childress.. You will find tons of information about what you seek in that book.. Its part of my collection

reply to post by never_tell


I'm not feeling especially "bright" this evening, but I thought they had light sources from phosphorous and quartz.... I need to go digging and rummaging on this subject.

Originally posted by Pellevoisin
reply to post by never_tell

 

I'm not feeling especially "bright" this evening, but I thought they had light sources from phosphorous and quartz.... I need to go digging and rummaging on this subject.

i think ultimately what's being suggested here, is that ancient people may have had a variety of technologies to "illuminate" their world... technologies still not readily accepted by today's academia

Soot:

The ancients had a number of ways to avoid soot on a ceiling

1. Cover the ceiling with mud, paint your pictures and the soot collects on the ceiling/mud, then you remove it. If painting the ceiling you use a covered lamp or do it in sections.

2. Instead of mud use a textile or palm frons

3. The Eygptians may have used low soot producing vegetable oils in connection with this.

Other comments: The Bagdad battery was not from ancient times but instead from around 600 AD

Childress is not noted for reliability, correctness or even being particularly truthful, I would take his material with a few kilos of salt.

Djed Columns are seen as the spine of Osiris, a kind of supporter of life like Vishnu in Hindu religious thought. The serpent figure and the Lotus flower its coming out of are all symbols of life. The supporting Djed column is therefore allowing 'Light' into the world and completing this imagery. This is a pretty orthodox view though, I'd love them to find a working Egyptian lightbulb!

What amazes me is the huge monolithic stones in a lot of ancient sites which actually have metal pegs holding them together, many of which have gone now. This is actual proof our history books are wrong, and yet you have to dig around in pseudo-science to find this kind of evidence. Its no wonder people find their own truths given this fact.

Similarly the Terracotta army were buried with alloy weapons which contained chrome, this kept their blades shiny. The technique was lost until around 1930 in Germany and 1940 in the USA. So an ancient civilisation had this technology 2000 years prior to the modern world.

Originally posted by Hanslune
Other comments: The Bagdad battery was not from ancient times but instead from around 600 AD

I thought the battery was debunked to be more in the vicinity of 1900 AD: Its a Ford sparkplug.

Originally posted by merka

Originally posted by Hanslune
Other comments: The Bagdad battery was not from ancient times but instead from around 600 AD

I thought the battery was debunked to be more in the vicinity of 1900 AD: Its a Ford sparkplug.

I haven't heard that. What is your source?

Nah sorry, I thought about the wrong thing and confused them. Its the Coso artifact that's the sparkplug.

I thought ancient Egyptians also used natural light and mirrors to illuminate otherwise darker areas.

I don't really think the ancient Egyptians had light bulbs. Just look at all we've accomplished since the invention of the light bulb. Many ancient civilizations were very resourceful, but i dont think light bulbs is the answer.

This has been done to death. You really should do a search before you post. There is all kinds of evidence to back the Lotus Blossom/Snake combo and debunk the lightbulb. Evidence such as the glyphs all around this particular scene talking about the Lotus/Snake thingie... It's nice and "wierd" when taken completely out of context, but pretty freaking mundain (as in it's just telling a myth) when place in context of the complete picture.

Say, I'm here, let's flip this thing a hundred eighty:

LIFE COMES FROM SNAKES THAT POP OUT OF LOTUS BLOSSOMS!!!
Mystery of the ancients: The ancient egyptions knew the secret of life...

I hadn't heard the one about the Xian metals being alloys- usually that story is told about the metal links found in Andean ruins being "alloys" what they actually are are unrefined natural metals which actually tend to come with other "impurities" in it.

Yep the light bulb one is easy to debunk - just read what is written by the Egyptians about !

The Baghdad battery is an interesting piece of stuff but not related to ancient civillization and the Corso spark plug is just a bad hoax.

I have such a hard time accepting this as 'debunked' I seen a show on Discovery or History channel, not sure, but they did a fairly well job at communicating both sides of this claim. The believers even had a museum where they claim to have recreated a large light bulb fashioned to look exactly like the one's in the heirogliphs and powered them only off the "baghdad batteries" and the light worked. infact it worked well. I wonder if any experienced electrician could take a look at those pictures?

[edit on 16-11-2007 by cynical572]

Howdy Cynical572

1. The Egyptian writing on this makes it clear this isn't about light but religion
2. There are several thousand years difference between the dating of the Egyptian picture and the Baghdad battery
3. There is a geographical separation too
4. There is no more evidence of electical use except the Baghdad battery (and even that is disputed by some) and it comes from 600 AD
5. One piece of data (the battery) which is not from the ancient world isn't enough to make a definitive statement on the possibility of electricity in the ancient world - one will need to await for more evidence. It is possible in my opinion but not probable.

As stated before, this has been discussed plenty.

As for the "hellicopters" et al, it's plaster over old glyphs. This has been proven. Nothing to see there. But of course, you are welcome to believe what you wish. Carry on, but please, do a search.

copper wire doesn't degrade over time...where is all the wiring for these light bulbs that are supposed to be everywhere?