The ancient navigators

Erisothenes the custodian of the Library of Alexandria, sent Captain Rata and the Navigator Maui in an easterly direction to map the eastern half of the Earth they were supposed to meet with an expedition halfway around which went in a western direction. To be able to determine longitude they had an instrument called a Taniwa. All these names are relevant and active in Polynesian tales and mythology today loosely and sometimes very accurately documenting the same tales. The taniwha is a strange creature in Polynesian folklore that is depicted in a similar style to the depiction of this instrument. It was recreated recently and can give accurate enough measurements of longitude to work well. Nothing worked the same until the chronometer was invented.21sci-tech.com...

a reply to: anonentity

Always been interested in ancient navigation and what the people of their day knew about the world in which they lived.

I suggest that if Julius Caesar had not burned, or allowed to burn, the library of Alexandria the world may have been a different place to exist with the likes of the industrial revolution beginning whilst the Roman empire was still standing.

Good thread.

a reply to: andy06shake

I often wonder if Julius Ceasar was that stupid he knew knowledge was power and might have grabbed what he thought was relevant and burned the rest to hide the crime. These maps of the ancient sea kings with the prime meridian at Giza could all be in the Vatican archives, under layers of dust for all we know.

a reply to: anonentity

Stupid may not have come into it all the same as it may have been an accident.

Here is the thing though, the way that the library worked was to collect any and all information brought into the city that was on tablets, scrolls, and books, via the ships, traders, and tourists and then copy it.

Why would you only make one copy, and store said copy in only one library or location?

Seems to me the people of the time understood that great fires were a problem and would have taken measures so as to retard any loss of down to the likes of fire, flood, theft, or invasion.

a reply to: andy06shake


Copies placed as references and backups, I wonder where I would store such treasures. Where they would be protected from the ravages of time. If Giza was the prime meridian. It begs the question of what's in the chamber above the accending gallery.

I had a dog and his name was bingo.

a reply to: anonentity

a reply to: anonentity

Copies placed as references and backups, I wonder where I would store such treasures. Where they would be protected from the ravages of time. If Giza was the prime meridian.

Well that would be "The Hall of Records" if it ever existed which unfortunately remains as lost and undiscovered as Alexander Tomb or Genghis Khans burial mound.

It begs the question of what's in the chamber above the accending gallery.

Everybody wants to know what's in there, but given the size, i would not get your hopes up as to it containing the totality of ancient human knowledge.

Some speculation that the great pyramid was a power generator of sorts which may have something to do with unknown gaps and crevices regarding the chamber above the ascending gallery.

Never read this thread here at ATS anonentity?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

One of my favorites and in the top 10, and may be of somewhat relevance to your thread in an offhand sort of manner.

a reply to: anonentity

A great subject, I am of the opinion that history is far longer and more complex than the current theory's allow, I would not be surprised if some day we found the remains of a city built by other branches of humanity such as the Neanderthal or the Denisovan's, it is almost definite that Neanderthal must have had some form of navigation since the spread so far and while land bridges are used to explain that it is really not a good explanation.

I also love the fact that there ARE Egyptian ruins in Australia, the Gimpy Pyramid is sadly now lost to us but it hints that at some point the Egyptians were far more than simply river navigators and they actively explored not only west but east, north and south.

Boomerangs were famously found in King Tut's tomb.



When the great library of Alexandria was burned Scholars were said to be running in and out trying to save there precious scroll's and being burned alive, many would run out carrying arm full's of scrolls with there robes and beards on fire, some of that knowledge must have survived and was probably hidden among Egypt's cults.

But given the discovery of the sunken city's in the sea off the south coast of India that may be dating back to at least the last ice age and the sunken city of Cuba that may be even older we have to at least consider the probability that human civilization is far more ancient than than the fertile crescent theory once claimed, indeed it has perhaps risen and been destroyed several times and we can only wonder to what heights they reached.

a reply to: LABTECH767

The ancient Indus civilisation is fascinating.

a reply to: andy06shake

Definity agree, but those ruins in the gulf of Cambay may be even more ancient (That is if we trust the dating of the indus ruins since there are also claims they are far more ancient than we are told and that there were indeed radioactive skeletons found there).
archaeologyonline.net...

There are also long standing claims that though now probably lost to us the monk's of the Himalayan kingdoms specifically Tibet were in possession of some very ancient knowledge indeed so there could have been or indeed be another hall of records of a kind either still concealed or lost somewhere in the Himalaya's.

There are for example persistent rumours of underground city's and this may be a reference to ancient bunkers or depository's.

The best bet though as you point out if we can ever get past the veil of secrecy would be finding the truth about the supposed underground city at Giza and the possible temple within the sphynx that is depicted in old documents but is today both denied to exist and hidden by the modern Egyptian authority's.

a reply to: LABTECH767

Did they not sing stones into place or rather allegedly utilized harmonic resonance by way of trumpets and drums?

We can do something similar in this day of age with sound waves and yet we are lucky to levitate a ping pong ball.

a reply to: andy06shake

Hey there are many claim's about that, something about them using large trumpets and other instruments to levitate the stones.

The principle has been proven in a laboratory it is indeed possible to levitate objects on sound waves.


There was some guy, can't recall the story but he supposedly filmed the monk's in Tibet using sound to move objects but his footage was either seized or else lost if I recall the story, it was suppressed anyway.


OF course sound only works in an atmosphere but of course the same principle could potentially be used in the EM spectrum to provide some interesting affects.

a reply to: LABTECH767

Using sound waves to levitate and defy gravity is a little different from utilizing electromagnets and superconductors all the same.

That would be a video i would love to see if the monks were filmed, and if it exists.

I seem to recall reading they apparently arranged the drums and trumpets around the rocks in a semi-circle and then its pretty much down to the tune aka tones and beats played. The rocks rise and then the tones emitted by the trumpets direct the rock to the intended destination...............allegedly all the same.

I leaned over the gunwale forgetting there was nothing to drink the last time I looked and lo and behold I started picking cotton as wet as the sea... Oh no the Taniwa has me!

My face as wise looking as an owl and arms as tangly as a vine warning people to not pick clouds out of their shorts.

The unknown name of anything until its known is the Taniwa...

People may come along and call it tides and erosion etc. but once they leave it's still the Taniwa. In realizing in other cultures the word "devil" is the same? Maybe they can come to peace until that unknown rattles around making their eyes as wide as the sea partially hoping they do see and don't see at the same time.

Knowing one's range? Oh the devil is everywhere... Yes but have you ever heard of the Taniwa? No. what's a Taniwa? The hair standing up on the back of your neck!

If anyone has ever walked coastal one can understand why boat become the preferred method of expeditions and charting courses. Traveling islands/disappearing islands or land masses without an anchor were thought to be large sea turtles. Seeing those and being on those could also be thought of as Taniwa,

Being of island and fishing heritage there was no end to tales sitting with my grandfather and the other older men... the younger teen one's were happy to go out and nearly have us all meet "Taniwa" at every opportunity... or so it seemed but I think that was just to get the parents to stop making them baby sitters when they were wanting to get into other types of trouble and the adults knew it and just wanted the full report of all they did if you were stuck with them and of course the threats if you did say since they knew parents would want to know.

Such a thing I suppose will never really end since such a thing likely has no beginning to it either.

a reply to: Crowfoot

The Taniwa was the instrument that predicted longitude, without this sextant-like increment you forget about doing long distances without precise navigation. Like the sextant, its use might have been guarded from the average sailor, so if they mutinied they would never get home. It could enter folklore as some sort of magical instrument that got people into trouble. The drawing of it has the style of the Polynesian Taniwa which is sold as a trinket around the world. It might even be a meme for making it. That was my thought when i saw the drawing left in the Indonesian cave for what it's worth.

a reply to: anonentity

Some of the ancient Norse sagas mention the use of a mysterious "sunstone" for navigation.
Most light "calcite crystals" which when used correctly by a skilled navigator could indicate highly accurate compass readings even on a cloudy day when the sun was hidden.

Longitude of any precision is a different matter all the same requiring accurate measurement of time.

Yes longitude the way we work it out needs accurate time measurement. But since the Antikythera instrument has been worked out. It might have been a different method. At a certain place on the Earth's surface, the angle between the certain celestial bodies would be particular to that longitude at the moment it was measured. The moon for instance can be seen during the day. If you knew the eighteen-year cycle. and the angle between the sun and moon, that angle could only occur from a certain position on the earth's surface. If you can predict an eclipse when there is no angle to measure, that occurs only at a certain position on the earth's surface at a certain time. If that's the case if you had an instrument, that positioned the moon above something like a globe then the zenith angles from your position would peculiar to your position.If you get my drift. In modern cell phones positioning is done between magnetic north and true north, the angle is peculiar to your position on the Earths surface thats as I understand it.
The Taniwa suposedly invented by Eristthenes, looks like it has somthing to do with positioning heavenly bodies, and in those maps of the Ancient sea kings , it looks like it is a flattened globe or an arial shot taken above Gizza, so it flattens out land masses at the periphey of the relevant hemisphere.So if the sun was in say sector "A' and the moon was in sector "B' the angle measured from the ship would only occur at sector "C" at the suns noon on that particular day.or somthing like that.

a reply to: LABTECH767

I Agree , but Be Careful , Harte Will Come on this Thread and Try and Destroy your Pretext here . It is What He Does..........(

a reply to: anonentity

Oh that thing those used to be scrimshawed like a disc that out on the water would be held up and match a land mass in the hole when looked through to make sure you were in the right spot or on course like a day sextant since stars were not visible... using both the scrimshawed piece and a sextant had the advantage of plotting course in day and night... of course the keyhole sort likely had warnings of various sorts attached like any closer than what is seen through the keyhole is a reef or other such danger.

a reply to: Zanti Misfit

Yes he will be lurking ready to attack, bring it on Harte!!!