Did any ancient civilizations have electricity?

Some of them, including the Minoans and the Romans, had running water, but what about electricity? The Baghdad Battery is VERY interesting, but not strong evidence of ancient electronics, imo.

I think Atlantis definitely had electricity.

How did they light the inside of pyramids? Not enough oxygen for torches

well they supposedly had light bulbs called the denderah lightbulbuk.wrs.yahoo.com...=A1f4cfqA5LhK63MB6ZdLBQx.;_ylu=X3o'___'ByNGxmazk4BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2lyZAR2dGlkAw--/SIG=12eqtsch8/EXP=12537 17504/**http%3a//www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/Denderahlightbulb.html

www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk... sorry messed that link up go to link and type in denderah lightbulb

[edit on 22-9-2009 by juggalo77]

Fireflies on a stick?
Sorry had to do it

To be more on topic IMHO I think we have had a lot more than eletricity before "now times"
I believe we as a race have historical amnesia "lost chapters"

If my theory is correct "got to use graphic scale for ie"
We need to take a 5 mile square of land in oh say 50 different places and due 5 mile deep archeological digs into the earth and we may start to SEE some things..

Originally posted by Doc Holiday
Fireflies on a stick?
Sorry had to do it

To be more on topic IMHO I think we have had a lot more than eletricity before "now times"
I believe we as a race have historical amnesia "lost chapters"

If my theory is correct "got to use graphic scale for ie"
We need to take a 5 mile square of land in oh say 50 different places and due 5 mile deep archeological digs into the earth and we may start to SEE some things..

Absolutely, I mean even Rome at its peak was probably comparable to Western civilization in the late 19th century.

[edit on 22-9-2009 by Donnie Darko]

Originally posted by Donnie Darko
The Baghdad Battery is VERY interesting, but not strong evidence of ancient electronics, imo.

Interesting. Why not?

The battery proves they knew of the existance of electricity. I see no reason why they wouldn't have experimented on the larger scale once they had this knowledge.

The egyptions did they knew how to use electricity. You will see some of their ancient light bulbs four to five feet in length if I remember correctly and I am sure they also knew about solar energy.


[edit on 22-9-2009 by menguard]

reply to post by Clickfoot


indeed... one man, 1000 tries, *fanfare music* the light bulb. Can you imagine how quickly it would have happened with lots of funding and hundreds of scientists?

An interesting effect I learned about..Humans create an innovate faster when we are in concentration of numbers.

Originally posted by Clickfoot

Originally posted by Donnie Darko
The Baghdad Battery is VERY interesting, but not strong evidence of ancient electronics, imo.

Interesting. Why not?

The battery proves they knew of the existance of electricity. I see no reason why they wouldn't have experimented on the larger scale once they had this knowledge.

I read about it, it's not that clear cut. I do think it's very likely though.

Debunkers look at the Baghdad battery and say it can't possibly be a battery because it is TOO SMALL to produce any meaningful amount of electricity. What could you possibly power with it, especially in the ancient world?

Then again, one could look at Heron's Aeolipile and claim it was in no way a steam engine since it can't possibly power anything with it.



Yet look at what Hero of Alexandria and Heron were making in ancient times. Were these intended to be engines? Or rather MODELS, proof of concepts, as we would call them today (Many of the Greek scholars were devotees of Babylonian mathematics, where the Baghdad battery would later emerge in the early AD's).

The Baghdad battery could easily have been a test or an apparatus designed to display "electricity", even by those who may not have understood it's origin. In the Baghdad battery you have a rod made of iron and copper, creating an electrochemical couple when in the presence of an electrolyte (such as vinegar or lemon juice). If these were merely "makeup jars" (as debunkers claim) why go to the trouble of making the rods out of copper with an inner rod made of iron, when either would have sufficed on their own?

These sites elaborate on the concept of the Baghdad battery in depth:
Ancientskyscraper.com
Bibliotecapleyades.net
Bibliotecapleyades goes a bit further into the use of caustic soda and lye's used as possible electrolytes making the potential charge of the batteries much higher than those possible with electrolytic acids like vinear)

Babylon, along with Egypt, were cultures steeped in goldsmithing. Working with gold as extensively as they did, you'd have to wonder how long before they became aware of golds excellent conductive properties, even if they only encountered it accidentally as static electricity. Even the Egyptian bas-reliefs depicting the so-called Dendera lights show a sizable "battery-like" container, with leads coming from it covered it what may be a cotton ball like insulators, leading to lotus-like sconces. a religious depiction based on Egyptian mythology (as the debunkers claim) or an ordinary scene of a lit room, complete with a female preening herself before a mirror, or in another instance, of a goddess impressing her believers with a headdress of light?



Which leads back to another opportunity for accidental discovery of electricity (if only static), by brushing hair. Brushing long dark hair, especially in a low light environment would display fringes of blue light and other quixotic phenomena related to static electricity to an ancient people who surely would have been mystified by the display.

[edit on 22-9-2009 by Blackmarketeer]

I think the artifacts such as baghdad battery and the egyptian lights, etc. represent the collapse of knowledge, rather than the rise in it. We were on the down slope, although we would probably have recovered quickly if the Library at Alexandria had not been destroyed. I would volunteer to have all of my molars extracted without anesthetic to be able to persuse the documents that were there at the various points in history.

Controversy and Comparisons
Some have claimed that these artifacts provide evidence of ancient knowledge of electricity, millennia before the conventional dates given for its discovery. However even if it is accepted that the "Baghdad batteries" were in fact electrical devices, this provides no evidence of any real knowledge of electrical phenomena. Any basic understanding of electrical theory of these cultures did not allow them to render more robust designs. The facts that using the electrodes in the electrolyte to produce the voltage, and using larger vessels gives a larger current is obvious to us today; but it is unclear if the ancient civilizations realised this.

Whoever made the Baghdad batteries, assuming they were in fact galvanic cells, may not have fully understood the principles. For example, it is well known that the Ancient Greeks were aware of electrostatic electrical phenomena produced by amber, but they regarded it as a mere curiosity or toy and developed no electrical theory or functional devices. For evidence of ancient Parthian knowledge of the ideas of electricity, records of its use awaits discovery in more concrete terms, such as seeing it discussed in their writings (though they may not have stated it as 'electricity', relating instead a mystical connotation) or gaining a better perception that their "batteries" were designed with a knowledge of electrical theory. A controversy also exists as to whether the Ancient Egyptians could have used such devices.

As electrical generators, the "Baghdad batteries" would be inefficient when compared to modern devices. However, if placed in appropriate network arrays, these artifacts could produce a qualitative power output. Luigi Galvani formulated a similar electrochemical couple experiment in the 1780s and, 20 years later, Alessandro Volta developed enough theory to convert Galvani's simple experiment into the efficient voltaic pile, producing around 30 volts of continuous current (but Volta's devices were much larger than known Baghdad relics). Within two or three more years Sir Humphry Davy was using voltaic piles that produced 1,000 volts and enough current to run an arc lamp.

Editors Note: Scholars point to the lack of evidence found in ancient books and writings, yet tend to forget that the Ancient Library of Alexandria was burned to the ground with thousands of works lost forever from ancient scholars. As there are no known [or yet dicovered) other copies of these works, who knows what may have been in those works.

It IS an important note though that once you have created the concept and developed it to a working model, generally it is only a short time to better understanding and more effective use as stated above.

Well, I believe that the Baghdad battery was used for electroplating metal, rather than generating a useful amount of electricity. Convention has it that electroplating was invented in the early 1800s but I think that ancient cultures knew about ir or at least had a similar process.

reply to post by rogerstigers


Spot on! I suspect that the Catholic Church went to great lengths during the Dark Ages, especially with the destruction of the Library of Alexandria, to sequester any and all knowledge of previous high technological civilization. I'd say it is likely based upon what little evidence exists today that the ancient Egyptians and possibly the ancient Greeks (let alone much older civilizations of which we don't have an archaeological record) had electricity, powered flight and possibly more exotic apparatus. The Vatican couldn't have that though. Unable to devise a way to integrate all that tech into their imperium, they destroyed all they could and hid all the rest in the Vatican Vault. I just hope we see the vault opened within the next few decades. What a revolution that will be!

reply to post by MillionEyedMask


Yeah. About that. Not to interrupt your wonderful conspiracy there, but the Catholic Church didn't even exist at the time Alexandria burned. In fact, the Library was destroyed during the approximate lifetime of Christ.

Compounding your logic, it was fully destroyed during the Muslim sacking of Alexiandria in the 640's, and I highly doubt the Catholics were in Cahoots with the Caliphate

There is nothing new under the sun.

Not a one line post.

reply to post by resistor


You my friend are 100% correct!
Nothing is new under the sun. Thats, what, all the secretes, are about.

Ancient knowledge . IT was held in different ocult/secrete societies .
They all had access to the knowledge ,but not all could understand(the same thing, when two different people ,look at TRIG,math ,some get it some don't) . But, the one who got it,used it to control, the ones who didn't , hence the down turn in knowledge , since they decided ,to repress the knowledge ,to a select few.

We today ,are not really ,discovering anything new, we are just figuring out ,the knowledge that was left behind.

IMAGINE ! IF you will, a time, when ,a disaster (cataclysm/war of the gods) ,wiped out ,all but a few people.

Now the one's left on this planet, they where not ,GoDs,they where not ,rocket scientist ,they where hot brain surgeons,nor where they micro biologyst. They, more then likely, where people just like us.

They knew about, and used, the technologies, that where all destroyed ,along with all the information that showed them how it all actually worked.

So now that ,that, picture is painted in your heads , Imagine YOU yourself trying to teach some one, back then ,what ,the , avogadro's number, is all about,trying to teach them what ,stoichiometric number's are,trying to teach them how to ,balance equations, just so they can understand ,chemistry ,so they can understand ,how it all comes together, ect.ect.ect.

Now imagine, the one trying to explain, all of this, used to clean horse stalls,but!They, are the only one left alive , who has ever, been exposed, to chemistry ,and that was only because, the stall he used to clean ,belonged to a biochemist , so they have heard a few things but really knows nothing ,but they,are, the best option for passing ,on what used to be known.


We are just know reaching ,the knowledge/technology that was once known around the world.Lots can happed in 25,000 years, and that is a very, very, long GRAPE vine ,spanning , over several milenia .

originally posted by: resistor

There is nothing new under the sun.

Not a one line post.

lol quoting the Book of Ecclesiastes.

Indeed, this is not the first time society has achieved a state of technological advancement.

originally posted by: Donnie Darko
Absolutely, I mean even Rome at its peak was probably comparable to Western civilization in the late 19th century.

[edit on 22-9-2009 by Donnie Darko]

17th-18th century perhaps.