Was there once an advanced civilization on Earth? I don't mean like the ancient Egyptians. I
mean a civilization that existed tens or even hundreds of thousands of years ago. A civilization
that achieved a level of technology roughly equivalent to our own, perhaps even more advanced in some fields

Why not? We as a species have existed for well over a million years. Our current civilization is
only about eight thousand years old. What is to say that in all of those hundreds of thousands of
years between the time man came into being and the beginning of our civilization that another
much older civilization did not exist.

Of course, the first objection that comes to mind is that it is hard to believe that such a civilization could have existed and leave absolutely no evidence of its existence. We should consider, however, that even large cities would be lost, disintegrated or covered over in just a few hundred years. After a few thousand years, there would be little left to find. We are not talking a few thousand years here, we are talking about tens of thousands of years. Still, you would think that SOMETHING would have survived. Well, maybe it did.

Stories may have been handed down. Technology may have been passed from generation to generation over the years and through the centuries and millennia. Much would have been lost, but some stories of a wondrous civilization may have survived. Some technology may have survived to be discovered by today's scientists and explorers. The problem is, would these scientists and explorers recognize the evidence when they found it?

Has anomalous technology been discovered? Do legends exist that contain information that is completely out of place for its time? The answer is yes.

Read the following prose and see if you can determine what is being described:
 
 

     The American flying in his swift and powerful B-29, hurled against the cities of Hiroshima and
     Nagasaki a single projectile charged with all the power of the universe. An incandescent
     column of smoke and fire, as brilliant as ten thousand suns, rose in all its splendor. It was the
     secret weapon, the iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death, which reduced to ashes the
     entire population of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

     The corpses were so burnt they were no longer recognizable. Hair and fingernails fell out,
     Pottery broke without cause. ... Foodstuffs were poisoned. To escape, the soldiers threw
     themselves in streams to wash themselves and their equipment.
 
 

It is obvious that the above prose gives a somewhat poetic description of the nuclear bombing of the Japanese
cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that brought World War II to a close. It goes on to accurately describe an
aftermath of battle that had never been experienced before; the symptoms of radiation sickness that affected many
of the survivors. It also describes the procedure of people washing fallout (radioactive dust) from their bodies and
possessions.

In reality the original story did not mention the Japanese cities or the Americans. I hope you will forgive me for
taking poetic license to point out the amazing accuracy of the original story.

The actual story was written down nearly two thousand years ago. It is in the Indian Mahabharata, a holy book
containing compilation of ancient stories and legends that were handed down by word of mouth from ancient times.
In it are described the Vimana (flying machines) of the Gods. It also describes wars between the Gods where
terrible weapons were used. Weapons that sound disturbingly like guided missiles, directed energy beam weapons,
directed particle beam weapons and, as you will see below, nuclear weapons. Following is the story as it was
actually written. Keep in mind; this story is thousands of years old.
 
 

     Gurkha, flying in his swift and powerful Vimana, hurled against the three cities of the Vrishnis
     and Andhakas a single projectile charged with all the power of the universe. An incandescent
     column of smoke and fire, as brilliant as ten thousand suns, rose in all its splendor. It was the
     unknown weapon, the iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death, which reduced to ashes
     the entire race of the Vrishnis and Andhakas.

     The corpses were so burnt they were no longer recognizable. Hair and fingernails fell out,
     Pottery broke without cause. ... Foodstuffs were poisoned. To escape, the warriors threw
     themselves in streams to wash themselves and their equipment.

 The above object is on display at the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo. Although it is a copy of the original find, it is
 accurate copy, and is obviously an airplane. The plane is called the Saqqara Glider. It is 15 cm long (slightly under
 6 inches) and has a wing span of 18 cm (slightly over 7 inches). It is made of light sycamore wood and will fly when
 thrown. It dates from 200 BC. It was discovered in 1898 and catalogued as a bird. Since the plane's re-discovery by Dr Kahlil Messiha in 1969, over a dozen similar "birds" have been discovered.

Interesting and controversial figures have been found in The New World.

Below are two gold figures of pre-Incan origin that were found in Colombia. An object similar to the one on the left was studied by an aerospace engineer (I am sorry, I cannot remember his name) in California in the mid sixties. He stated that it had the characteristics of an aircraft and a larger model, if powered, would fly. These figures have been classified as "zoomorphic" meaning that they represent (in this case) birds or insects.

Possibly they are zoomorphic, but what is not obvious in the above photo, is the fact that they have a VERTICAL STABILIZER where a modern aircraft would have one.  Neither insects nor birds have vertical stabilizers.  The photo below is of another gold pre-Incan figure.  It is angled so that the non-zoomorphic characteristics are easier to see.

Note the vertical and horizontal stabilizers at the rear of the object.  There also seems to be a windshield like protrusion at the front.  Behind the "windshield" is what appears to be a cockpit with a seat.  Next to the "windshield" are knobs that suggest forward facing lights.

Similar objects have been found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Peru. Scientists and engineers have studied the objects and concluded they seem more artificial than natural.

Overly enthusiastic interpretation of unusual artifacts may lead some people to regard all such claims with suspicion. What can be said, however, when a functioning device is discovered? I am talking about a functioning device that should not have existed at the time it was made. The Saqqara glider is, of course, one example, but it is not the only example. Another, equally impressive, example of 'out of place' technology is the Baghdad Battery.

Archeologist William Konig came across this object in an Iraqi museum in 1937. After inspecting the object, he realized that it could be used to generate electricity. Experiments with modern replicas have proven that the battery will produce between one and a half to two volts. A modern flashlight battery produces one and a half volts.
 
 

Was this battery a fluke? Was it an accidental discovery that was not further developed? Some archeologists say yes, but could it have been handed down technology from a much older civilization? There are stories of the Parthians using electric lights.

The geode in the above photograph was discovered in 1961 by Wally Lane, Mike Mikesell and Virginia Maxey of Olancha California. It was found near the top of a 4300-foot mountain overlooking Owens Dry Lake. In the middle of the geode is a metal core about .08 inch (2 mm) in diameter. The core is encircled by what appears to be a ceramic cylinder. The core and cylinder are in turn encased in a sleeve of petrified wood. Around this is the geode itself, consisting of hardened clay, pebbles, pieces of fossil shell and two nonmagnetic metal objects that resemble a nail and a washer. A fragment of copper between the ceramic and petrified wood indicates at they may once have been separated by a now decomposed copper sleeve. Based on the fossils in the geode, it is estimated to be 500,000 years old

Paul Willis of INFO Journal studied X-Rays of the geode and was the first to notice the similarity between the object and a spark plug.

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