Ancient technology findings. Were our ancestors more advanced than we know?

Found this article dating 4th of November and thought I'd post it. Not sure if it's been discussed before as there are many technology threads, so excuse me in advance if it has. I found it to be very interesting and generally fascinating how our ancestors 'made things work.'

Short quote from source:

In the early years of the 20th century an artifact was recovered from a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. Dated to about 80BC, it was considered a mere artifact. However in 1971 research on the Antikythera Mechanism showed it to have an intricate arrangement of gears, dials and graded plates. One theory is that it was a computing device to work out the movement of the Sun and planets. If this idea is true, then the ancients had a degree of technology way above previously imagined.

This is further shown by a crystal skull found in 1927 belonging to the Maya civilisation of ancient Mexico. The skull is carved from a single block of quartz crystal. So perfect is the skull that it would have taken some 300 years to carve by known means of the time. If a light is placed below it, a prism in the mouth directs the light through the eyes, lighting up the skull.

A further hint of advanced technology used by the ancients comes from the Baghdad Battery found in 1936. Said to be at least 2,000 years old, fruit juice was added to a replica and it produced half a volt of electricity.
Archaeologist Flinders Petrie added to the controversy with his words on certain elements of ancient engineering. A most systematic and exacting man, he wasn’t prone to flights of fancy, but he noted grooves and inscriptions on pottery and other artifacts that could not have been produced by modern precision engineering techniques.

How did they possibly do these feats all that time ago? Read the source below for a possible explanation. Possible ultra sound?

It's a good read none the less, skeptics or not. I'd love to see that battery tbh!



Edit: FULL SOURCE

[edit on 5-11-2007 by Arawn]

the link went awol, just fyi