Ancient Electricity
| The Egyptian lamp | The Baghdad battery | Assyrian Seal | The coffin of Henettawy | Last Update:07/11/2001 |
The Egyptian lamp
A strange thing, which can be found in an underground cavern
below the Hathor-temple in Dendera, Egypt. A few pictures of
bulb-like devices, into which two small arms reach before its
thick, rounded end. These arms are supported by a column which
looks much like a modern high voltage insulator. At the thin end
however runs something like a cable into the glass bulb. From
this striking out and almost reaching the arms on the other side
a snake can be seen, hanging in the air. The whole arrangement
has a striking resemblance to an electric lamp.
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The Baghdad battery
The clay jar and others like it are part of the
holdings of the National Museum of Iraq and have been attributed
to the Parthian Empire — an ancient Asian culture that ruled
most of the Middle East from 247 B.C. to A.D. 228. The jar itself
has been dated to sometime around 200 B.C. It was first described
in 1938 by German archaeologist Wilhelm Konig, and to this day,
it is uncertain whether Konig dug it up himself or found it
archived in the museum. So how is it that a 2,000-year-old clay
jar can be called a battery? Those who’ve examined it
closely say that there’s little else that it can be. The
nondescript earthen jar is only 5½ inches high by 3 inches
across. The opening was sealed with an asphalt plug, which held
in place a copper sheet, rolled into a tube. This tube was capped
at the bottom with a copper disc held in place by more asphalt. A
narrow iron rod was stuck through the upper asphalt plug and hung
down into the center of the copper tube — not touching any
part of it. Fill the jar with an acidic liquid, such as vinegar
or fermented grape juice, and you have yourself a battery capable
of generating a small current. The acidic liquid permits a flow
of electrons from the copper tube to the iron rod — an
electric flow — when the two metal terminals are connected.
This is known as an electrochemical reaction, and it’s not
any different from how the batteries in your Walkman work. Experiments
with models of the Baghdad Battery have generated between 1.5 and
2 volts. Not a lot of power. So what would batteries have been
used for 2,000 years ago? It’s well known that the Greeks
and Romans used certain species of electric fish in the treatment
of pain — they’d literally go stand on a live electric
eel until their gout-pained feet went numb. Perhaps the battery
was used as a ready source of less slimy analgesic electricity.
Other theories hold that several batteries could have been linked
together to generate a higher voltage for the use in
electroplating gold to a silver surface. More experiments with
several Baghdad-type batteries have shown this to be possible.
The little jar in Baghdad suggests that Volta didn't invent the
battery, but reinvented it.
Assyrian Seal
Modern impression of a cylinder seal of the early first
millennium B.C. in Babylonia and Assyria were carved in the
linear, drilled, cut, and modeled styles. The modeled style
illustrated here derives from earlier Middle Assyrian seal
carving and from the modeled sculpture in the palace of Sargon II
(r. 721–705 B.C.), king of Assyria at Khorsabad. This style
was used predominantly on seals showing scenes of contest and
worship.On this cylinder seal a statue of the goddess Ishtar
stands on a platform within a canopied enclosure. Ishtar is
identified by crossed quivers, a starred crown, and stars
encircling her body. Two winged genies protect the enclosure,
while a kneeling figure worships.This is the
official explanation but it don't look like a canopied enclosure the
goddess Ishtar surrounds !(Click at the picture for full size)
The coffin of
Henettawy
The outer Coffin of Henettawy : dated about 1040–991
B.C.E., Dynasty 21, Third Intermediate period, Egyptian Thebes,
Plastered and painted wood; L. 79 7/8 in. (203 cm)
You can see at the left picture close to the guardians images
like modern lamps ! Do you know what are those ? Coffinzoom
(Click at the picture for full size)
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